I hate how the talk of NATO expanding is something that happens on its own, like its a force of nature or some beast. It completely removes the agency of the people of the countries that want to join NATO and believe it to be a much better option that remaining out of it, because of the threat of Russia. These people do not see the atrocities NATO did in the Middle East, they see the big looming shadow of Russia and look to the nearest option for their own safety. Whether NATO would actually go to war with Russia over Lithuania or Bulgaria is another question, that these smaller members I think prefer not to think about.
Donbas is part of Ukraine and has significant oil reservoirs so Russia started an independence movement almost a decade ago
being supportive of Russia bombing Ukraine even to their stated goals is insane. Advocating for NATO to return to the 1997 lines (an impossibility) shows how this isn’t a war of defense
Even assuming the independence movements are legit (I don’t know enough to say one way or another), it’s still extremely cynical of Russia to weaponize the recognition of these countries as a prelude to starting a military conflict.
russia’s economy is dependent on oil/nat gas, ukraine discovered massive natural gas deposits in 2013 in the Crimean sea and the eastern regions. Ukraine is more friendly to nato/EU and offers the west a way to hurt the russian economy by buying from Ukraine. Russia takes crimea and starts funding the eastern regions separatists
it is very straight forward tbh
