Pope Francis is right. NATO provoked this war.
Former Warsaw Pact puppets state joining NATO 18 years ago, and Ukraine looking at NATO after having chunks of it’s territory stolen by Russia was not a provocation.
Agreed. The below is from an interview Zelensky gave.
“...the response was very clear, you’re not going to be a NATO member, but publicly, the doors will remain open.”
They publicly spoke and wrote articles about Ukraine joining Nato, but had no intention of that happening.
https://www.islamtimes.org/en/news/984878/zelensky-reveals-nato-s-true-stance-on-ukraine-accession
Sure, by it's weakness and Biden's fickle skedaddle from Afghanistan, we convinced Putin that he'd never have a better opportunity to begin reconstitution the old Russian Empire.
Our weakness is the strongest provocation possible.