Ukraine has to do what Ukraine has to do here. They’re as prepared as they could be. The world is helping as much as they can but without being part of NATO, NATO isn’t in a hurry to step in.
Do I think some empty promises were sold Ukraine along the way? Sure. The removal of nuclear weapons in 1993 with the promise of protection in case there’s problems, got sort of forgotten along the way. Like a mouse and a cat being raised as pets together, the world has waited for the cat to try and get the mouse again; the question is: how much has the mouse grown since the beginning?
There’s no real surprises in this except that I am absolutely amazed at the patriotism in Ukraine over this. It’s a rare solidarity but then again, I can’t think of any nation in the world in my lifetime that genuinely trained citizen soldiers in the past 8 years as they have.
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That’s the excuse.
Putin has had Ukraine in his sights for 20 years.
Conservatives in Russia, of which Putin is a part as are the other oligarchs and most religious leaders, see Ukraine as theirs.
They see Kyiv as their spiritual home from 1000 years ago.
There was a treaty in the 1600s – something Eternal Peace – that Russia has claimed for a long time that the existence of Ukraine breaks.
They see Ukrainian language as broken Russian – a mistake, an historical error that needs correcting.
NATO is a blip on the radar in these long histories.
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