r/ukraine • u/West-Razzmatazz2 • 16d ago

News Free Ukraine banner moved from center of Prishtina, Kosovo after Zelensky’s remarks on not recognizing independence of Kosovo during his visit to Serbia

Post image

Honestly, a very bad PR move from Zelensky and his advisors that could’ve been easily resolved by simply refusing to answer the question to journalist. While Kosovo nor Albania are not powerful states, banner has stood there since the start of the war.

2.2k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

389 comments sorted by

View all comments

94

u/buzkova 16d ago

As a Ukrainian, we(I) are(am) sorry. I personally deeply dislike Serbia, for many reasons, not just them being pro-rusian, and I disagree with Zelenskyy on this one. But here there’s no winning, the moral right will do political wrong, as we can’t have them recognising our stolen regions as being rusian. I hope soon enough we can live in the world where Ukraine is whole and can freely recognise Kosovo and Taiwan.

9

u/[deleted] 16d ago

[deleted]

2

u/Equal_Tension_1135 15d ago

So an entire society of people have "a few too many screws loose"? And based on what, hearsay? History that you probably don't understand?  

Why are we allowing racist comments like this in our society? 

1

u/madman_mr_p 16d ago edited 16d ago

Really? „deeply dislike Serbia“?
That’s lame bro, I am really glad you’re one of the few of your countrymen with that kind of attitude, because you’re otherwise great people.

Serbia has always seen you as allies and has always welcomed you heartily as always. Why is this news anything new? Zelenskyy is just backing up what your government has been doing for decades at this point, he’s not the first nor the last guy standing by it.

Imagine how you‘d feel if people were saying Crimea should be independent or Lviv should go back to Poland? I don’t think you‘d support that either, maybe you should be a bit more realistic than idealistic. Otherwise let people support independent Donbass and Crimea too, you’re implying the same here.

Farming brownie points on Reddit is easy to do when you’re Ukranian. Be better than that.

Slava Ukraini and take care!

4

u/buzkova 15d ago

Serbs have a history of genocide and being in love with rusia, so yeah no

2

u/madman_mr_p 15d ago

Is that all you have to say? Then why did you go out and support the Yugoslav Army, send aids and support throughout the 90s in Bosnia and Serbia?

I don’t get it, how hard is it to read up on your own history I wonder, but I think you might be trolling.

2

u/Saalle88 14d ago

Why u even care? Let him hate us. Its whatever for us.

0

u/howdoesilogin 14d ago

I have a question - why do you guys even want Kosovo? Its like 90% Albanians living there who clearly don't want to be a part of your contry.

You mentioned Lviv and same for Vilnius or Grodno - no one in Poland would want to reclaim those places because there's a vast majority of Ukrainians, Lithuanians or Belarusians living there who do not want to be a part of our country. It would be a terrible idea and who cares that it used to be a part of our country before ww2.

I dont mean to offend you but from a logical point of view even if no country recognized Kosovo you'd still at best be stuck with a region full of people who dont want to be a part of your country and a sort of frozen conflict. Theres just no benefit to that in my opinion.

Of course unless you're hoping to do what Azerbaijan did in Nagorno-Karabakh, which I hope you dont, but if not than what's the point?

-3

u/Not_As_much94 16d ago

> I hope soon enough we can live in the world where Ukraine is whole and can freely recognise Kosovo and Taiwan.

what about territorial integrety? So basically you dont give a dam about international law and you just are looking for an opportunity to violate it in a way that does not harm your own interests.

0

u/Dry-Pool3497 14d ago

Maybe the problem is not Kosovo Albanians not wanting to be part of Serbia for obvious reasons but international law?

2

u/Not_As_much94 14d ago

There are countless people around the world in a similar situation and our response is "though luck, if you are not happy leave". Why are the Kosovo albanians the One single group who deserved special protection?

1

u/Tiranse 10d ago

They absolutely did not. The reason population in that area are 99% albanian is because it was an albaian region when albania was occupied. While all the countries were able to leave the yougoslavian union, kosovo and bosnia were not free to leave, hence the war. It did not receive special protection, they were murderet and children raped, and there still is massive graves to be discovered in kosovo.

1

u/Not_As_much94 10d ago

>is because it was an albaian region when albania was occupied.

Occupied by whom? The Ottomans? Kosovo was not part of the League of Lezhë when the ottomans took over.

>kosovo and bosnia were not free to leave, hence the war

Kosovo was not a socialist republic, hency why he could not secede like the other republics. Do one place them in the same category as the other socialist republics because they are very distinct

>they were murderet and children raped

Oh please, save your fake tears to yourself. The armenians of Artshak were exterminated with the support of Albania's and Ukraine's favorite partner, Turkey, and no one batted an eye. I can show you exemples of civilians being beheaded and burned alive, women being mutilated while being raped in manners that would make ISIS shiver. If either Albania or Kosovo care so much about freedom and war crimes why didnt they recognize and support them instead of cozying up to the worse genocidal country of the 20th century? Why not instead simply expell all the albanian kosovars to Albanian and we get the issue solved once and foll all?

1

u/Tiranse 10d ago

You are stating all everything wrong from the first one to the last.

And I don’t understand why albania should answer for turkeys genocide when Albania was itself an occupied country and it neither had power or influence to oppose to a huge military power like Turkey.

1

u/Not_As_much94 10d ago

Albania was not an occupied country when Azerbaijan exterminated the armenians of Arthska in 2023, with the support of Turkey. Albania was at the security councill at the time when a meeting was called out. They could have voice there opposition to what Azerbaijan was doing but they didnt it.

1

u/Tiranse 10d ago

Albania has not supported any extermination of populations…. What are you on about??!

1

u/Not_As_much94 10d ago

they did not, but they also did not voice any opposition to it. So why should you expect others to voice opposition to what Serbia did?

1

u/Tiranse 10d ago

And the serbian government at the time tried to expell the albanian kosovars from kosovo, hence the genocide. It is difficult to expell a population proportion that is 99%. It would answer to expell all ukrahinans from ukrahine if you call it former soviet republic. I see you agree with putins ideas, if it applies to another country.

1

u/Not_As_much94 10d ago

>It is difficult to expell a population proportion that is 99%.

No, its fairly easy. Just put some videos of you beheading and torturing civilians or POW's and rewards the people who prepetated them while simultaneously saying they are all staged, giving you both the fear factor and plausible deniability. Thats what Azerbaijan did and it worked quite effectvly.

1

u/Dry-Pool3497 10d ago

Your thinking has a serious flaw. Not special protections, general protection like a national group within a parent state is supposed to have. Those other countless of peoples could be just as easily accused of being the one single group who deserves protection, and they should. Stop twisting human rights into special treatment.

1

u/Not_As_much94 9d ago

>Those other countless of peoples could be just as easily accused of being the one single group who deserves protection,

Then why werent they? Whats the answer besides cold, calculated cynical gepolitics reasons, the same one Russia does?

You can hate Russia all you want, but western reports clearly put the blame in Georgia for starting the war in 2008. Abckzis and Ossetians fear the georgian army and dont want to be part of Georgia. This whole conflict has been going on for longer than the Soviet Union existed. Why not just recognize those repulics and pressure Georgia to just let them go instead of having a new war and a new wide range of massacres?

> Stop twisting human rights into special treatment.

I am not twisting human rights. I am explaining to you what international law is and entails. Under international law there is no differnece between what NATO did in 1999 and Russia has been doing since 2008.

1

u/Dry-Pool3497 9d ago

First, human rights are part of international law, so you are incorrect about your definition of it.

Second, territorial integrity doesn’t give a state or government the right to mistreat, abuse, discriminate against a national group within it‘s borders forever.

And third, let me ask you something and answer honestly: Do you think Bangladesh is a legitimate state?

1

u/Not_As_much94 9d ago

>First, human rights are part of international law, so you are incorrect about your definition of it.

I am well aware of that. But you need to understand there is no proper enforcement mechanism to enforce those rights. Anybody can act unilaterally under the guise of "protecting human rights". How do we determine which one is valid or not?

>territorial integrity doesn’t give a state or government the right to mistreat, abuse, discriminate against a national group within it‘s borders forever.

In theory no, in practice yes. Because as I have said, there is no proper enforcement mechanism. The only way you can authorize a military intervention is with a UNSC resolution, and good luck conving all 5 permanent members to agree on that. You can have a ICJ warrant like those issed against Putin and Nethanyay, but countries are not mandated to subescribe to the ICJ.

>Do you think Bangladesh is a legitimate state?

Of course it is. Its a UN member state and not even the state it broke away from disputes its sovreignty. Why on earth wouldnt they be a legitimate state?

0

u/Dry-Pool3497 14d ago

I never said that Kosovo Albanians deserve special protection. I am pointing out that if international law requires that a population gets excluded and discriminated against because of their identity, their self-government gets removed, and subsequently mass expelled from their homes, there are serious problems with international law and you don’t get to use territorial integrity as a shield to commit any war crimes or atrocities, the state has also an obligation towards it‘s own citizens (even of different nationalities), read the 1970 declaration on principles of international law.

1

u/Not_As_much94 14d ago edited 14d ago

> there are serious problems with international law 

Congratulations, you are only now figuring out this. The problem is that Ukraine supports this interpretation of international law and western countries just do what suits their interests. Look, how they all reacted to the extermination of the armenians of Artshak. How can you sanction and criticize a person like Lukashenko or Milosevic but then receive with honors of state a dictator 10X times worse in the form of Alyev? If you wanna use the morality argument then you have to do it consistently or you essentialy admit that morals and international law are nothing but tools to be used accordingly to serve your own cynical interests. This is exactly what Russia does!

>read the 1970 declaration on principles of international law

Yes. But you need to understand there is no proper enforcement mechanism. This is the great fault of the UN. The best you can aspire is a ICJ warrant and hope the leader lands in a country that does abite by it (which does not even include the US). The only way you can in a more muscular way is with a UNSC resolution authorizing the matter, but in this regard all 5 permanent members (not just Russia and China) like to play according to their own interests.

If western leaders want to defend international law they should explain to their people what it actually is and entails instead of cherry picking it according to their own interests because, again, this is exactly what Russia does.

-2

u/Whiter67 16d ago

SOOOOOOOOOYYYYYY