They had infinite casus-belli back in 2014. The democratically elected government got ousted, pro-Russian protesters were burned alive in Odessa, and there was massive fighting going on all across eastern Ukraine. But what the Russia do? Absolutely fucking nothing. They just sat there watching like a bunch of impotent imps. Back then Ukraine was split right in the middle in terms of supporting Russia or the west. Now? They probably don't even have 50% support in fucking Donbas, never mind the rest of Ukraine. Instead of doing anything about it back then he decided to wait 8 years. 8 years of pro-western governments, 8 years of western money flowing into Ukraine filling the pockets of the powerful in Ukraine, and 8 years of non-stop pro-western propaganda on every newschannel.
People constantly talk about what a mastermind Putin is, and how he have turned the failed state of Russia into its former glory. But no one can say his Ukraine policy hasn't been an absolute disaster. >tl;dr Russia lost Ukraine and no one is to blame except Putin
it's called "non linear warfare", look it up. it's the same thing americans have been doing in afghanistan and iraq. it's a type of war where the goal is not to win but to destabilise the region, demoralise the population as well as make as much profit as possible
Parker Thomas
Russia doesn't "want" Ukrainian territory. they just refuse to allow NATO to set up shop and missiles on their border. This all started back in the Euromaidan protests in 2013. In 2012-13 Ukraine's got made a series of reforms to help them get closer to EU membership. Russia responded by restricting trade with Ukraine, and offered Ukraine huge loans in exchange for orienting their economy back toward Russia. Ukraine did this, and then the protests started. The protests were organic to start with, but heavily backed by the US after a short while (Victoria Nuland was the main operator, and there are recordings of her arranging the post-coup puppet government). The pro-Russian government fell and was replaced by far-right Ukrainian nationalists, who banned Russian language on TV and in official documents, among other things. Ethnic Russians in the east of the country didn't accept the violent overthrow of the democratically elected president, and barricaded their cities and towns and declared independence. The Ukrainian govt sent far-right militias (Azov, Pravij Sektor, etc) to crush the rebellion. They were quite successful until Russia intervened by invading south of Donetsk, opening up another front, The Ukrainians were defeated and withdrew. Meanwhile, Crimea (which is 90% ethnic Russian and only became part of Ukraine after Hrushov added it for easier governing) voted to rejoin Russia, which protected Sevastopol, the Russian naval base in the Mediterranean. The front lines have been static since this, with occasional shelling. The Ukrainian govt could stop all this by implementing the Minsk agreement with the separatists, and staying neutral to accomodate Russia's security concerns... but then the US military-industrial complex would lose out on a profitable market.
That baffles us all, too. For 8 years they were sponsoring terrorists in ukraine and not letting the war to end while losing remaining support among ukrainian people. And now when like 99% ukrainians outside russia-occupied territories hates their guts they invade...
Liam Kelly
Meanwhile, NATO is already at their border just 550 km from Moscow (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania)
Juan Sanders
there are likely things you are unaware of going on.
Anthony James
They tried and failed.
Camden Gray
Those are EU countries, Putin can't do shit about it.
Jeremiah Hall
I know, I'm saying that the "hurr durr NATO at my doorstep" argument is flawed exactly since NATO already is at their doorstep...
Camden Thompson
Invading a nation is a big fucking deal and is extremely costly and risky, as we have already seen in these few days. What we're seeing now is a last resort by Putin after several previous policy failures of trying to ensure, and coerce, Ukrainian neutrality. All other options were exhausted. It was now-or-never, effectively.
Colton Adams
Yes I know Russia doesn't want territory but they do want a pro-Russian Ukraine. Or at the very least a neutral Ukraine.
The rest of your post is just describing how the west outmaneuvered Russia, which I also agree with. Yeah but the baltics was lost to Russia in the early 2000s. Russia was in no position to stop it at that time.
The failure in Ukraine could have easily been avoided.
Jackson Long
True. But alas I think it will ultimately be now-AND-never.
Xavier Powell
This really all boils down to Nord Stream 2. People tend to think it’s about NATO, and that does play a part, but it’s not the main part. Nord Stream 1 currently supplies the EU with 30-40% of their natural gas. NS2 is going to bump this number up to 80%. The US doesn’t like this because the EU will become reliant on Russian natural gas and thus become a neutral party in the fear mongering against Russia. NS2 was completed last year and is awaiting final inspections and approvals, which could have happened at any time. However, the US has been trying to deter the EU from going down this path and has even been encouraging the EU to turn off NS1 and get their natural gas from other sources. One of those sources would be Ukraine, with the US also supplying the EU. The US has actually been increasing it’s natural gas exports to the EU lately to test if this can be sustainable. Getting natural gas from Ukraine would be more expensive, but this is what the US wants for it’s European counterparts. Russia knows about all this and had been building troops at the borders of Ukraine in order to stop any plans of the EU weaning off of Russian natural gas.
Once Germany announced NS2 would be suspended Putin needed to invade Ukraine because Germany is now blocking NS2 from being turned on, with possible threats of turning off NS1. Germany can only do that if they get natural gas from Ukraine, but they can’t if Russia controls it. Russia isn’t going to allow their biggest export to be cut off, this would cripple their economy. The EU just fucked themselves which is what they get for listening to the US
>make as much profit as possible you mispelled trillions of denbts
Daniel Sanchez
Baltics are 10x smaller population wise then Ukraine tho so not as big of a NATO threat
Sebastian Green
Profit is not for the state you numbnut, look at how much money all the cronies and the companies made.
Carson Myers
How fuck did Ukraine voted for a pro russian 8 years ago but now are against Russia?
Kayden Sullivan
> US Fearmongering The only country has been providing any valid arguments for fearing russian invasion in the last 30 years was Russia itself.
Nicholas Rodriguez
Because we were invaded by Russia in 2014 and have been in a state of frozen conflict since then. No matter how friendly you are with your neighbor, if he stabs you in the back while you are down - you are doing to start hating him.
