And that in turn played into the hands of the old style cold warriors in the Kremlin. NATO expanded into the former Warsaw Pact countries of eastern Europe. It even swallowed the former Soviet Baltic republics. Those moves were naturally seen as hostile in Moscow. But for 25 years, Russia tolerated it.
Wow that was so amazing of Muscovy to tolerate that independent countries were free to make their own decisions and not rubberstamp the decisions of the Kremlin.
So amazing.
Then in 2014, Russia's enemies started moving into Ukraine. Due to deep historical and ethnic ties, this was totally intolerable to Russia. Western deep state agents helped engineer a coup in Kyiv that overthrew a popularly elected pro-Russian president. Anti-Russian elements were place in power by mob action in the streets. So Russian hard liners replied by a bloodless annexation of Crimea.
What a load of bs
No one except Muscovy moved into Ukraine.
The democratically elected Parliament of Ukraine voted to further align towards Free Europe.
The Muscovite puppet in the Presidential Palace of Kyiv didn't want to sign this democratic decision.
In turn protests erupted throughout Ukraine.
The Muscovite Puppet in turn had special forces shoot at protesters.
At the same time Muscovy moved its own covert troops in Ukraine.
They tried to take the entirety of the so called "Novorussia", so pretty much everything on the left bank of the Dniepr.
They failed.
Most spectacularly in the south when a ragtag militia known as Azov repelled the Muscovite special forces and drove them back to occupied Crimea.
This would lead to over decade of butthurt by the Muscovites.
Thankfully the Army of Ukraine managed to keep the Muscovite forces in check for the next years.
Only after most of the situation had stabilised did British, Canadian and US military instructors arrive in Ukraine.
In the coming years in the face of Muscovite aggression the badly equipped and trained Ukrainian post-Soviet Army became more and more modern.
**mod edit**
Then for years, the Russians were quite explicit that any NATO expansion into Ukraine would mean war. It was never a secret. But the US and Europe believed that it was just bluster and refused to back off, and in 2022 the Ukraine War started and continues today as kind of a World War I style stalemated war of attrition, as hundreds of thousands of young men are killed and maimed and the world lurches ever closer to nuclear war.
And just for the record: Between 2014 and 2022 Ukraine did not get one step closer to join NATO.
How are your 3 Days to Kyiv going Muscovite?
Yet even today, many politicians in both the US and Europe still demand that Ukraine fight until Russia is "defeated". But what would a Russian defeat look like? Regime change in Moscow? That would most likely result in even more hardline nationalists taking power. Destruction of the Russian military or even breakup of Russia? But does much smaller Ukraine, even serving as expendable proxies for the US, really have the ability to achieve that? And how would turning the Russian landmass into a power vacuum serve any but Chinese interests?
And more Muscovite misinformation.
Ukraine fights on its own volition.
Even if Muscovy would manage to conquer the entire country the Ukrainians would fight on.
They have repeatedly said so.
They do not want to live under the boot of the Kremlin Vatnik.
Break up of Muscovy?
Heaven forbid the Muscovite colonial empire would collapse.
