@@DrRoyCasagranda

Before you dive into the comments…

A note from Jeremy:
This video is part of our Office Hours series. Roy is answering questions from viewers without a script or preparation. His goal is to offer historical context and spark conversation, not to present a final, polished lecture.
You will see many perspectives here, and some comments repeat talking points from state propaganda (Russian, Western, or otherwise). Before responding, we encourage you to:

- Ask for sources.
- Check claims against reliable history.
- Keep the focus on ideas, not personal attacks.

Disagreeing is fine. Distortion, spam, or harassment will be removed. Let’s make this a place worth reading.

@@vincesoder3284

Roy, you are so wrong in your estimation of Putins intentions... its sad, because it only functions as a green light for more war.

@@vincesoder3284

You lost me roy when you spew garbage speculations of russian intentions of invading just like its going bowling... you have yourself just pointed out that the west and ukraine is at fault for aggressivly posturing against russia so it invaded. If i undertand the russians correctly, if that isnt the case, there would be no war.

@@vincesoder3284

Very interesting, and i appreciate the historical contexts, which i already kinda knew, but i have to say that i do feel Dr. Casagranda is playing into the standard western pro war propaganda narrative a bit too much. Putin is not the madman, russia has repeatedly tried to avoid and end this war. Yes i agree, invasion is wrong and war is bad but the fact that Roy isnt mentioning the US role in this and the fact that the US in its project for total global hegemony has just capitalized on the tension and conflict between ukraine and russia. This is another forever war to suck the working people all over the globe of their money to be poured into the military industrial complex, banks, drugs, human trafficking, oil and gas comapnies all of which are making money hand over fist, or should i say hand over dead bodies. At the cost of the enviroment we are propelling ourselves into almost certain doom and i need to say that i love you roy but some of your answers here feel as though trying to emboldening the forces wanting to justify and continue this Proxy war. AMERICAS PROXY WAR.

@@Ronmon100

The real history is quite different from the Western narrative he faithfully delivers. The civilian residents in Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, Zaporizhia, and Crimea voted to join the Russian Federation before Ukrainian forces went to war on them in 2014

Contrary to the unhinged Western media narrative, Russia has never expressed any interest in geographical expansion, and has no need or desire for Ukrainian or European territory or resources. It doesn't want the headaches of a US style Empire.

Russia entered the Ukrainian civil war in 2022 to stop NATO from turning Ukraine into a nuclear armed vassel state on its border. They are fighting for their survival and are decisively defeating NATO and its Ukrainian proxy.

The rational and humane solution is a diplomatically negotiated peace agreement. But the Europeans are stupidly tilting at Windmills, pretending that they fear some farfetched Russian invasion that would never happen.

@@kentmccormick4230

Extortion? LMFAO your TDS finally showed up in this video.

@@KMHKC

Thank you for sharing your knowledge, it makes learning interesting!

@@Ronmon100

He pretty much sticks to the one-sided Western war propaganda, wrong on numerous historical points. Putin has no designs on Ukraine. He did not forcibly annex Crimea or Donbas - they voted to secede in response to attacks by Ukrainian forces. Putin didn't "screw up." He defeated NATO and protected Russian security. Very poor analysis compromised by the false propaganda.

@@arditpapa7963

Always a pleasure listening to you ROY. THANK YOU

@@MiguelangelFernandez82

Dr. Casagranda is brilliant as ever. The interviewer though should try to be more active. He's just not contributing anything.

@@ВладимирЯрцев-ц4п

I liked the guy and his lectures. But now listening to his "deep" explanations about Russia - Ukranian conflict I wonder if his knowledge and understanding of other historic events are on the same level? He misses a lot of facts, causes, motives, makes factual mistakes and I would say he is very very unaccurate.

@@Shmalentine

I am only just over 8 minutes into the video, but as a person born in the Soviet Union and who has lived in both Ukraine and Russia, I can say a lot of this is... inaccurate (to put it mildly). This video is NOT a good source of info on the Ukraine/Russia war or the history of the two nations. Sorry, Dr. Roy. You are very entertaining but... you don't seem to know enough to talk about this subject. 🤔

@@badprogrammer1280

Stalin have gifted Crimea for the role of Ukrainians have played in WW2? Till then, the talk was nice, but after that, i quit.😂

@@bipolarminddroppings

28:50 I hate doing air quotes, too, but sometimes they're really useful. It saves a lot of time over saying "and they, quote, volunteered, end quote"

@@cosmincasuta486

Ucraine was supposed to remain neutral starting with their own Declaration of Independence, it was a condition in the Budapest Memorandum! So... Ucraina step over it's own promisses! And brringing NATO at the Russian border IT IS A CASUS BELI! As usual the West used Ucraina as a hammer against Russia! And Russia told them forr morre than 8 yearrs what is going to happen'. They still arre telling everybody who wantt to hear! The west is deaf! Stupid and deaf!

@@michaelscully1957

Thought this Yankee clown had brains til i heard this reheated half-baked cold war gobshitery,very disspiriting.

@@dayacole5006

Thank you for the great interview!
One aspect that hasn’t been mentioned is Putin’s very personal maniacal hate toward everything Ukrainian and Zelensky personally. But that’s a topic for a different expert. Psychiatrist, maybe 😁

@@borninussr7242

So after 90 minutes of "both sides this, both sides that," the brilliant conclusion is that Russia’s concern over NATO on its border is somehow less valid than America freaking out over Cuba in 1962? Spare us the hypocrisy. When the U.S. promised not to expand NATO "one inch eastward," that was a clear strategic understanding with Moscow—not an optional suggestion. Yet, every U.S. president since Clinton treated that promise like a coupon that expired in the '90s. Then they act surprised when Russia—after two decades of warning—draws a red line in Ukraine. As for Crimea, it’s not exactly "annexation" when 2 million people vote overwhelmingly to rejoin Russia after a Western-backed coup in Kyiv. But sure, keep pretending Ukraine is just fighting for “democracy” while banning opposition parties and shelling its own breakaway regions for 8 years. Proxy war? Check. Ethnic tension? Check. Historical amnesia? Triple check.

@@dayacole5006

Ukrainian language grammatically and alphabetically is closer to the ancient Kievan Rus language (still used in the Orthodox Church scriptures and prayers) than modern Russian is.
Ukrainian language is closer to Polish than to Russian, which had been heavily influenced by the Turkic languages of the Golden Horde…
Russians cannot understand either Ukrainian or Polish languages, while Poles and Ukrainians can converse and understand each other speaking their native languages

@@dayacole5006

It wasn’t Stalin but Khrushchev who assigned Crimea to Ukraine purely for economic reasons: Ukraine was the only republic that had land access and Crimea is 100% dependant on Ukraine for its drinking water supply and electricity supply. So, for the Communist Party committee it was only logical to let Ukraine incorporate it and assume economic and social responsibility over the peninsula

@@goranigorbundaleski790

Dear Dr. Casagranda,

I used to follow you with genuine respect, but after hearing how casually you insult an entire nation, I cannot help but wonder: if you can be so careless here, how many of your other statements should also be questioned?
It is deeply ironic, and frankly hypocritical, that you speak about the hypocrisy of others while at the same time committing such an enormous mistake yourself. To claim that Macedonians are merely “Western Bulgarians” is not only historically reductionist—it is an affront to the dignity of a living people.
What makes this even more striking is that your remark about Macedonians did not even arise in a discussion of their history. It was tossed in flippantly, as if self-evident—and that is precisely what makes it so damaging. Debating historical sources is one thing; gratuitously denying the identity of a living people is quite another.
We can all read history in different ways, lean on this or that source, simplify complex events and argue over who belonged to which movement more than a century ago. That kind of academic debate may have its place. But to deny the identity of people living today—people who, like so many others, fought bitterly for their recognition and sovereignty, shedding much of their own blood in the process—is something entirely different. To tell a nation that they are not who they feel themselves to be is, at the very least, arrogant and disrespectful.
You yourself say that when Ukrainians no longer identify as Russians, any attempt to force that unity is “evil.” Yet in the same breath you deny Macedonians their own identity and reduce them to a footnote in someone else’s history. That is the clearest form of hypocrisy.
If you truly believe in the principles you preach, then consistency demands you apply them universally.

@@dayacole5006

Ukraine - Україна - doesn’t mean ‘frontier’. It is phonetically close to the Russian word ‘окраинаʼ - [okraina] which does mean ‘frontier’.
In Ukrainian ‘країнаʼ means ‘state, country’ and it has nothing to do with the Russian word ʼокраинаʼ - ʼfrontier’. Russians used this phonetic similarity for several centuries to justify their claim on Ukraine. The name Ukraina - the land of Cossacks can be found on old maps before Russia existed as a state.

@@johnjohnson3370

nato never ever promised not to expand to russias border

@@LogicalNiko

21:39 - Russia has a long history of forcing ethnic minorities to become unified under a single identity. This is of course not a new or unique thing, it is quite common in Central Europe and Asia for much of history to not want to unionize or play nice with other cultures unless they submit to some form of repression of identity. This also makes the Ukrainian question loaded as the Soviets took lots of its people and force relocated them into Ukraine in the same way they marched lots of people into the east to essentially dilute and eliminate the culture of populations that once had more ethnic and cultural ties to China. Of course in a twist of fate China is now kind of rumbling about maybe it should be taking back its ethnic peoples and territories from Russia if Russia doesn’t continue to be a valued partner.

But of course you could go on for days about ethnic takeovers and these things happening as far back as Egypt and Sumerian history.

@@ralemizrahi6792

actualy it was Nikita Khrushchev who gave Sevastopol ( Crimea ) to Ukraine in 1954

@@markusnystrom852

I really like this format! Have watched a bunch of Roy's lectures, but I like this format more!

@@janiaabera922

Dr. Roy is a walking Library….

@@sharifshah5151

Capacity of Ukraine nuclear facility?

@@hubertbross6725

Královec je český!

@@smartiesnestle6679

R u in Vancouver?!!

@@chriwa6830

No!! This is wrong on so many levels it makes you want to vomit!
Even the very term “Eastern expansion” is an outrage. NATO does not expand by itself – countries apply for membership. And that application has to be approved unanimously (!).

There was never a promise to reject such applications in advance. Such a promise could not even exist, because every democratically elected government in the West has the right to pursue a different policy than its predecessors – for better or for worse. At most, one can speak of a non-binding declaration of intent by a U.S. Secretary of State.

The picture you are painting is completely distorted anyway: the nature and self-understanding of NATO after 1990 were entirely in flux. It no longer had a clear mission and resembled more a kind of second OSCE! See also the NATO-Russia Founding Act!

The way you are twisting this is an absolute outrage!

@@Lena_Cyp

Dr.Roy, I am so sorry but I want to say that you should go to archives and learn more about history of Ukraine and please, I want just add ,most of population of russia even not a Slavic! Please stop spread your very confusing point of view but definitely not a historical facts about Ukraine

@@andreyloboda9470

From Ukrainian perspective this is a war for their identity, for their country and for their survival. They are the ones fighting and dying. Calling this war a ‘proxy’ war is an insult to Ukrainian heroes. If Dr.Roy can’t understand what is going on now, how can he opine about historical events that happened long time ago?

@@dumpdumbdummy9942

1.11%*

@@logicsconscience

Correction: Khrushchev (Not Stalin), gifted Crimea to Ukraine.

@@Zxuma

Crap! Why didn’t Ukraine get security from Russia, instead of Europe? Bias explanation from Roy.

This is exactly why there is a war now. Not every Ukrainian wanted “security “ from Europe.

@@oleksandrpatentyy74

Russians are not Slavic!

@@yurimeister

2 mins in with that disgraceful opening question & I knew exactly where we were going - down the well worn propaganda infested path of anti-Ukrainianism & victim blaming. Factually incorrect & missing key information, it's utterly shameless.

@@petardzeparoski3175

Very disappointed!! Macedonians are not west Bulgarians. We are a sovereign and distinct nation!

@@guyhommeNYC

There are two great books that fully recount how NATO has been expanding and encrouching on Russia since Clinton. Both have one word titles: HUBRIS by Jonathan Haslam and PROVOKED by Scott Horton. Roy is missing a lot

@@Jackiverstine

BOZO

@@angleazero1275

Great interview thanks!

@@OOO-uw5lw

all most good...

@@mattyu1818

Confusing language with ethnicity is basic and wrong. Are South Africans English because they speak English? Zelensky is a Ukrainian who's first language was Russian. But he's Ukrainian. The same as a South African who speaks English but doesn't speak Afrikaan is still South African.

Also... You're American not Finnish... Americans always try and pretend they're from a different Country because they want to feel connection to the rest of humanity in history because they don't have a connection and have been a dreadful World leader for the last 100 years despite colossal power.

Another guy with a solid iQ who has a small amount of second hand knowledge who likes to hear himself talk. That's about it

@@ponniatm

Most of the information is correct Roy should have a note on screen correcting the Stalin/Khrushchev mistake. People are throwing the baby out with the bath water.

@@nikolozjalabadze

No, George Bush didn't tell Georgians go and assert sovereignty over made up states of Abkhazia and SO. Russians started military exercises previous month and had accumulated huge number of troops and equipment on the border of Georgia. Further Supposed start of the war by Georgians is claimed by Russia to be 8th of august, while actually, Russians started killing our peacekeepers and civilians, bombing villages etc well before 8th, 29July, all the way to 7th when already several Georgian police officers and military personal was killed, many damaged homes and constant artillery fire.

Georgians answered those wrongful killings with military operation on 7th, wanting to be first to reach key heights to have direct fire over Rocki Tunnel(only entrance for that accumulated army from Russia) so that they couldn't enter. But Russians were already there on those heights.
Because think about it. We attack with 5k-10k division at supposed 500-1000 militia of South Ossetia most of whom are fortified in the city of Tskinvali and we can't secure key heights? It's true and also logical, that Russia was there already with an army.

@@dusandinic2649

When did George Bush 41 exactly promised Gorbatchew that NATO will not allow the East ?European states to join the Alliance?

@@work1917study

When defending myself is a threat to you, you must be the problem

@@yeah22134

The nueclar weapons never belong to Ukraine. They was deployed by the red army whose had operational control... it was the red army whose owns the button

@@ОлександрПрисяжнюк-о5г

"linguistically similar". Most european languages has more similiarities than russian and ukrainian. Does this mean they shoud be under one ruler?