Thread by @GastroOneIndia

#UkraineUnderAttack @RavikanthS_ #RussiaUkraineConflict

John Mearsheimer, a professor of international relations and security at the University of Chicago has for years been cautioning American diplomats to stop pressing for Ukraine in NATO.

He argued that it would be akin to Russia setting up military bases in Canada. Would the USA accept it? We saw how the USA was ready to go to war when the Russians placed missiles in Cuba in 1962.

The mistake the West made was to assume that after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia had no great power security concerns. Big mistake!

“After the collapse of the Soviet Union, NATO pushed eastward, bringing into the fold most of the Eastern European nations that had been in the Communist orbit. In 2004, NATO added the former Soviet Baltic republics Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

Four years later, it declared its intention to offer membership to Ukraine some day in the distant future -- crossing a red line for Russia.

In interviews and speeches, Putin has previously emphasized his view that Ukraine is part of Russia, culturally, linguistically and politically.

While some of the mostly Russian-speaking population in Ukraine's east feel the same, a more nationalist, Ukrainian-speaking population in the west has historically supported greater integration with Europe.

In early 2014, mass protests in the capital Kyiv known as Euromaidan forced out a Russia-friendly president after he refused to sign an EU association agreement.

Russia responded by annexing the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea and fomenting a separatist rebellion in Ukraine's east, which seized control of part of the Donbas region.

Despite a ceasefire agreement in 2015, the two sides have not seen a stable peace, and the front line has barely moved since.

Nearly 14,000 people have died in the conflict, and there are 1.5 million people internally displaced in Ukraine, according to the Ukrainian government.”...

edition.cnn.com/2022/02/24/eur…