SilverMachine
Committed member
Ukraine was never going to attack Russia, be it a member of NATO or not. Did Poland get invaded because it looked like it might join NATO? It is not for the Russians to dictate to other peoples what cultural or military relationships they are allowed to have. Nor for the US.
I am in favour of freedom and democracy remaining in Ukraine. Many countries claiming to support freedom and democracy ditch their support where they see a different course serving their national interest better. That is a curse on others.
Not defending Putin's actions in invading here whatsoever, but "Ukraine would never invade Russia" was never Putin's point, if we want to give a fair lay of the land here. He was seeing the country that's historically been the buffer zone between Russian sphere and western sphere start cuddling up to the west bigtime, with Obama staffers/advisors on the ground in Ukraine getting involved in elections.
The guy never thought Ukraine would *invade* Russia, that was never his point. It's "NATO get the fuck out of my backyard". Right or wrong (he's wrong for doing it), it's an understandable concern for a Russian leader, and has been for every Russian leader of every system of government going back centuries. Crimea wouldn't have happened (at least at the time it did, last decade, might have long into the future sure) had the Obama administration not been twisting Vlad's nipples basically bragging that they're influencing Ukrainian elections. Let alone a full invasion of Ukraine proper. This goes back way before 2014.