Since way before the beginning.
Wallace Admits UK, Allies Were Building Ukraine’s Military Capability Before Conflict
MOSCOW (Sputnik) - UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said on Wednesday that the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and Sweden had been investing in Ukraine and building up the country’s military capabilities before the start of the conflict in February 2022.
“Ultimately culturally it is accepted that Ukraine will join NATO. When that happens is either condition-based. Also, before ...[the conflict started in February, 2022], Britain with Sweden, Canada, the United States were investing in Ukraine and building their capabilities,” Wallace said at a news conference during the NATO summit in Vilnius.
In 2014-2015, Ukraine negotiated a series of measures with Russia, France and Germany known as the Minsk Agreements aimed at a political resolution of conflict in Donbass. In February of this year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky admitted that he told former German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron that Kiev never intended to fulfill the Minsk Agreements. Merkel said that the deal had been merely an attempt to give Ukraine time to gain strength ahead of a full-scale military confrontation.
Ukraine had/has a right to make deals that favor it, and making deals with the enemy is the same as no deal.
Any country will make deals that strengthen it, and with the UK and Germany and the U.S., they couldn’t do better.
Expecting Russia to attack should always be on the radar of any country sharing a border with Russia. No matter who the leader, Russia has been an aggressor country for most of its history, especially in the last 100 or so. If they can’t be trusted, then, making deals with them is very risky and should not be done.