https://www.newsweek.com/trump-blames-us-almost-forcing-putin-invade-ukraine-1750145
"It's something Putin has been thinking about for many years," he said. "I think Putin basically launched this campaign to annex what was two territories—but is now four territories—to expand the Russian Federation. I think this was an example of imperial intent. He wanted to expand his territory and the Russian empire."
From the Russian perspective, there is validity to this. One of Russia's permanent military priorities is to be paranoid that the West will invade. Napolean did it. Hitler, y"sh, did it. So why not NATO? And now NATO, an alliance created to contain the USSR and which therefore technically no longer needs to exist, has expanded to include almost all the Warsaw Pact countries and even countries that only popped into existence after the USSR fell. The Russian military sees this as a genuine threat.
ReplyDeleteFrom the Russian perspective as well, Ukraine is a part of the Russian empire. Remember that Ukraine as an independent country is a modern invention. Unless you count the Ukraine SSR (and I don't think anyone seriously does), Ukraine was a region, not a country, always controlled by someone else and for the last few centuries by Russia. They see it as part of their territory.
So Trump's not wrong - Putin's paranoid KGB perspective would take these factors into account - the US is planning to invade and Ukraine being separate from us is intolerable.