Russia had no interest in and did not want to invade Ukraine but they were forced
As many have exposed, Russia’s take-over (or rather take-back) of Crimea in 2014 and the attack on Donbas in 2022 did not have the intention to “invade” Ukraine and “conquer” the country, but just Russia’s need and intention to secure the only always ice-free outlet to the sea. This is an essential strategical issue for Russia and well known by USUK, EU and NATO alike. As long as Ukraine would remain neutral there was no threat of Russia loosing this outlet. That’s why Crimea and Ukraine were and are the red line for Russia. Only when this red line was crossed by USUK and friends Russia needed to take action.
Gorbachov one-sidedly tried to end the cold war
When Gorbachov wisely and one-sidedly tried to end the cold war, following his Glasnost and Perestroika, by dissolving the Warsaw pact and withdraw troops in 1991, the US, under the coverage of NATO support, immediately began drawing and executing plans to drag the old Warsaw pact countries into NATO, even if the agreement with Gorbachov was precisely not to do so and even if NATO had actually lost its reason for existence.
The betrayal of this and other agreements by USUK, EU and NATO alike is what forced Russia to defend itself. Objectively, one cannot deny there was a clear strategical reason for this. But even more so, a moral reason, given the constant breach of agreements by the US and its allies since Gorbachov’s Soviet/Russian one-sided initative to end the cold war in 1991. Instead of being replied with an equivalent dissolution of NATO and the full withdrawal of all US military forces and weaponry from all European territories starting in 1991, the US, through NATO coverage, only increased military presence in Europa and on an increasing number of territories. In other words, USUK, EU and NATO could not be trusted and became an constantly growing military threat ever closer to the Russian border.
