Johnny_L.A:
Thank you.
You realize he was trying but failing to clearly quote Broomstick ’s posts, right? All of his first few posts were quoting her, followed by his responses. It’s just difficult to read which is which unless you have the other thread open to see which is which. The correct parsing of that exchange for example would be:
Ukraine was ZERO threat to the Russia Federation. Aside from being smaller, poorer, and having a smaller military, it had surrendered its nuclear capability in return for a promise for its borders to be respected.
NATO is not a threat to Russia (except in the mind of some Russians who, regrettably, seem to be in charge there). Don’t want NATO to fight you? Don’t attack a NATO member. The only thing NATO was a threat to here was Russia ambition to conquer a weaker neighbor.
Russia started this war, full stop. It is entirely the fault of Russia, no one else.
Kedikat:
I agree, Ukraine itself was not a threat. But its military was being trained to NATO integration standards. It desired to be in NATO. If in NATO there would be NATO bases in it. That is a threat to Russia. Also, one does not have to attack NATO to be attacked by NATO. NATO has conducted military operations against those who have not attacked NATO members.