looking for info on the whole russia-ukraine thing
so what.... exactly was putin/russia expecting to get out of this whole thing anyway? it seems like all they've managed to do so far is make an enemy of basically the entire world and i don't see how they could have expected it to turn out differently
-F
looking for info on the whole russia-ukraine thing
@Felthry So a bit on the "why" here, because quite a few experts on this have been analyzing and speculating on this since long before the 2014 overthrow of Yanukovych. The two main drivers of Putin's personal ambitions with Ukraine appear to be his colonialistic desire to rebuild the Soviet state and to continue Russia's rule as a petrol state, both of which make Ukraine a particularly important target for him. A buffer to NATO is also a factor.
looking for info on the whole russia-ukraine thing
@Felthry (If you'd like sourcing on this lmk. I personally started researching this when trying to figure out why the hell 45 was blackmailing Zelenskyy at Putin's behest a few years ago.)
The odd part about this is it... may actually be that simple, because this is Putin's personal war, and he rules his country and inner circle through coercion. So small man who is an increasingly isolated sociopath, with wins carving out smaller territories...
looking for info on the whole russia-ukraine thing
@Felthry ... decides to go all in, without any of the discipline, supply chain economic understanding, or wartime discipline necessary to do so, and this is the disaster that follows.
Re, NATO: this is extremely reductive, but consider it a defense alliance of necessity established to prevent a repeat of World War 2. Basically, it establishes a unified defensive bloc that ensures all of Europe will defend itself against a repeat of Hitler.
looking for info on the whole russia-ukraine thing
@Felthry The main thing that it prevents is dividing and conquering European and Baltic states, by establishing that war on one state is war on all of them, and triggering defense pacts accordingly.
Which, a nation like Russia finds kind of terrifying, given Putin's isolating influence and colonialistic interests in former Soviet states. So he's been fighting deniable proxy wars to largely prevent their involvement... until now.
