Some analysts believe Kyiv is buying the west time on the precipice of a world war. Is it being used wisely?
www.theguardian.com
"Prof Tim Snyder, adds a twist by reimagining 1938 as a year in which Czechoslovakia, like Ukraine in 2022, had chosen to fight: โSo you had in Czechoslovakia, like Ukraine, an imperfect democracy. Itโs the farthest democracy in eastern
Europe. It has various problems, but when threatened by a larger neighbour, it chooses to resist. In that world, where Czechoslovakia resists, thereโs no second world war.โ
Snyder said such an outcome had been possible. โThey could have held the Germans back. It was largely a bluff on the German side. If the Czechs resisted, and the French and the British and maybe the Americans eventually started to help, there would have been a conflict, but there wouldnโt have been a second world war.
โInstead, when Germany invaded Poland in 1939, it was invading Poland with the Czech armaments industry, which was the best in the world. It was invading with Slovak soldiers. It was invading from a geographical position that it only gained because it had destroyed Czechoslovakia.โ
Snyder drove home his lesson from history: โIf Ukrainians give up, or if we give up on Ukraine, then itโs different. Itโs Russia making war in the future. Itโs Russia making war with Ukrainian technology, Ukrainian soldiers from a different geographical position. At that point, weโre in 1939. Weโre in 1938 now. In effect, what Ukrainians are letting us do is extend 1938.โ"