There are no winners in war, and civilians suffer and die as a result of egoistic leaders who are too proud to accept reality and want more than they can chew. That is the case with Russia.
Here are the reasons why Putin is attacking Ukraine:
- He raises doubts on Ukraine’s right to independence, describing contemporary Ukraine as a Soviet-era fabrication. In addition, he considers Russians and Ukrainians to be “one people.”
- He believes that a pro-Western Ukraine poses a threat to Russia.
- Prospect of Ukraine joining NATO has been described by him as a “Red line” for the Kremlin.
- He wants to demonstrate that popular revolutions, such as the one that occurred in Kyiv in 2014, do not last. This helps him maintain his reign in Russia. When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014, pro-Putin separatists took large swaths of the east, and they have been fighting Ukraine’s army ever since.
NATO’s fundamental goal, according to Russia, is to make Russia weaker. Any NATO expansion is seen as a direct threat to Russia’s interests, and Ukrainian participation would certainly push the country further away from Russia’s sphere of influence. The “fall of the Soviet Union was a significant geopolitical calamity of the century,” Putin declared in 2005.
What went wrong?
Background: When Eastern Europe was de-communized and the Soviet Socialist Republics declared independence 30 years ago, Russia agreed to let them separate because the US committed not to expand NATO even an inch to the east. That, of course, did not occur.
For 30 years, Russia has watched the United States adding 15 new allies to its alliance and moved their bases and weapons closer to Russia’s borders.
Russia faces an existential threat as a result of Ukraine’s membership in NATO. So Russia demanded a legally binding promise (a TREATY) that Ukraine would never extend NATO, that you would never expand NATO farther east, and that Russia would withdraw its soldiers. They’ll be obliged to use military force if they don’t.
A month had gone by. Putin’s appeal for security guarantees was flatly turned down. The best the US would agree to is that NATO drills near the Russian border would be suspended if Russia demilitarised its borders. That was when the line was cut.
The US planned to turn Ukraine into another Taiwan, with a giant dagger aimed towards Russia’s stomach. Putin was well aware that once Ukraine joined NATO, that would remain the case in perpetuity. And Russia would be powerless to stop it because it would unleash a NATO-wide military reaction.
Russia made every effort to prevent this from occurring. It has complained every time NATO expanded to a new country in the Baltic, Central, or Eastern Europe, only to be ignored. Russia attempted to be economically friendly to Ukraine in order to keep it friendly.
When that failed, Putin attempted to send a message to Ukraine by annexing the pro-Russian Crimean peninsula without bloodshed. Then, on February 2nd, 2022, Putin tried diplomacy for the first time, but it failed terribly when the US and NATO mocked his security guarantees demands.
Putin is now resorting to force in order to thwart American objectives for Ukraine before they become a reality. Security is worth any financial cost. In any event, sanctions-wise, the world is a completely different place than it was in 2014. Russia has made preparations. Its economy will suffer, but it will not be “crippled” or “devastated” in the way the West claims.
Ukraine – Not a NATO member:
Despite the fact that Ukraine is not a NATO member, NATO has already assisted Ukraine in defending itself against Russian aggression. NATO responded in 2014 by halting cooperation with Russia and bolstering Kyiv’s defence capabilities after Russia annexed Crimea and attacked eastern Ukraine. It performed military exercises, sent troops to the region, and provided funding for cyberwarfare defences. However, it did not participate militarily in the conflict.
Although, this time, NATO countries will not go to war with Russia unless one of their own is attacked. Despite the continuous fighting and growing losses, NATO will not send soldiers to Ukraine, preferring to strengthen its own eastern flank instead.
In this view, Putin’s concern cannot be justified, as it demonstrates that weaker countries have no geopolitical rights. It’s bad when one country simply takes over another because it can. NATO expansion in the Eastern Europe by the United States violates a promise made by James Baker and Mikhail Gorbachev. We have seen, the US fighting in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and Libya with force.
In essence, it’s a battle between capitalism and socialism. Capitalists desire to exploit the world in ever-increasing ways. The United Kingdom and the United States have thrived by splitting regimes in order to gain an advantage. They haven’t been actively involved in many battles, but they have been involved in a slew of proxy warfare.
The area that Russia has taken by force in Ukraine simply brings them closer to true NATO borders. Putin isn’t going to like it either. Where will PacMan stop? As a result, China will be empowered to invade Taiwan, weakening the position of Western allies.