Ariana Gic
Independent Political Analyst
York University – Osgoode Hall Law School Direct Initiative International Centre for Ukraine
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Nov 14, 2025
No, NOT a “bloody conflict”, Mr Rubio, but illegal, unprovoked Russian aggression and ongoing genocide of Ukrainians. Denying facts and reality doesn’t erase American obligations to help Ukraine defeat Russia and stop Russian genocide of Ukranians. Denial is in fact nothing more than LYING.
When a NON STATE ACTOR attacked the United States on Sept 11, 2001, Washington waged illegal war against TWO countries in response. Yet after almost 12 full years of Russian aggression and genocide, Ukraine remains restrained in its legal right to self defence and is coerced to negotiate.
Ariana Gic :
Director, Direct Initiative — International Centre for Ukraine
Ariana Gic is a writer, political and legal analyst, and coordinator of various advocacy campaigns for a strong international response to Russia’s war and genocide against Ukraine.
She is the Director of the Direct Initiative International Centre for Ukraine, and co-author of the upcoming book, Unrecognized War. Ms Gic is co-lead of a legal research project on the ongoing Russian genocide against Ukrainians, and an information campaign “Save Ukraine to Save the World” for International Recognition of this genocide. She co-led “Truth for Peace,” a public campaign which called for recognizing Russia as the aggressor state waging unlawful interstate war against Ukraine from 2014 to 2022, and continues to campaign for Russia being designated as a rogue state threatening world peace, and as a state sponsor of terrorism.
She has written extensively on the issues of the Russia-Ukraine war for international and Ukrainian media for over a decade. Ms Gic is sanctioned by the Russian Federation for her advocacy and activism work.
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Former NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg’s claim that closing Ukraine’s airspace in 2022 would have meant full NATO-Russia war is false. NATO shooting down UNMANNED Russian aircraft in Ukrainian skies would NOT have been direct conflict with Russia and could not have triggered WW3.
The position that shooting down UNMANNED missiles in Ukrainian airspace – where they have NO right to be in the first place – to help protect Ukrainian civilians as well as critical and nuclear infrastructure would trigger WW3 is dishonest justification for the unjustifiable.
From 2014, EVERY bit of military support for Ukraine was said to be a “provocation” and “would trigger WW3” so had to be avoided. Slowly, after 2022, as military aid to Ukraine started to grow, the excuses proferred for years were shown to be nothing more than that – excuses.
And the lame excuse that NATO could not close Ukrainian skies in 2022 because that would trigger WW3 should be rejected. We should not allow the cowardice of NATO nations to stand in for fact, reason, or reality.
While Moscow happily took full advantage of being protected by NATO nations from the full extent of the legal consequences of its illegal aggression and genocide, people like Former Secretary General Stoltenberg soothed themselves by claiming they saved the world. But they didn’t.
They threw Ukraine under the bus, sacrificed Ukrainian land and people, AND RUSSIA IS STILL MOVING TOWARD ACTIVE MILITARY AGGRESSION AGAINST NATO. We avoided doing what it legally and morally required to avoid “provoking” Putin, and instead, we rolled out the red carpet for him.
Comment from :
Marijn Markus
If we’re unwilling to stop war, then we deserve war.
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What Russia does to Ukraine:
Stoltenberg to all intents and purposes was just another putler stooge.
The current incumbent is no better.
As for Rubio, he’s gone from being a principled opponent of putler to a piss-ass trumputler shithead.
The major countries have no powerful leader, and even NATO is showing nothing but weakness. You name it, there is no backbone, but plenty of fluffiness.