Start with the West playing footsie with a former Soviet state, genius.
***Really, now. That is where HISTORY of the region starts with you. You could not have picked a better example of a loaded definition. You’re already making ridiculous assertions and looking at the region through propaganda-filled eyes. Then you throw out the insult, as if you are some kind of genius but you don’t even know how to separate yourself from your own biased approach.
That’s where the problem started.
***The problem started when Russia kept Ukraine in its sphere of influence for so many decades, enslaving a whole nation. Then the USSR fell, and those dipwads left a third of their nuclear arsenal abandoned on Uke soil.
This provides another historic high point because Ukraine, Russia, the USA, Britain and Ireland all signed the Budapest Accession to the United Nations Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty assuring borders&sovereignty in exchange for dismantling those nukes. The Ukes HONORED that agreement; the Rukes VIOLATED it twice by invading; the USA was looking for ways to ABROGATE it because there had been 2 namby-pamby administrations.
Another historical highlight is that oil & gas reserves were discovered there. But you want history to be traced by one country “playing footsie” with another. What a joke.
It’s no different than the Soviets putting missiles into Cuba.
***If it were no different then we would have nuclear missiles in Ukraine. And we do NOT. So you’re exactly the polar opposite of where your analogy needs to be. Not only do we not have nukes but the Ukes don’t have nukes because they gave them up, HONORING that agreement. And they were SOVIET nukes, genius. Your analogy is so far off that it laughs at itself.
Had Kennedy invaded
***Kennedy DID invade, genius.
would you blame the USA for starting it? Come on.
***Yes. We started that one. Russia’s response to the Bay of Pigs Invasion was to try to put nukes into Cuba. Kennedy put the kibosh on that when he discovered that we had at least 5X the nuke capacity as the USSR because they were lying about their capability while we were busy trying to catch up to that lie. Not that you would know any of the particulars of that historical milestone.
. I've been making that same excellent point for awhile now. The Putinistas keep saying "It's just like Cuba!" while ignoring that 1) there are no missiles in Ukraine, and 2) we tolerated Russian troops being in Cuba for decades, and were fine with it as long as they didn't have nukes. So Cuba really is the measuring stick, then the Russians shouldn't have any problem with Ukraine as long as nukes are not deployed there.
That would have been an easy enough guarantee to give.
Speaking of agreements, you forgot one. The Minsk agreements signed by Ukraine and Russia in 2014/15 that promised to continue the Russian traditions and culture in the Donbass. Ukraine violated it as soon as the ink was dry by outlawing teaching Russian in schools which they’d done for decades. Most of eastern Ukraine spoke Russian as their first language, but Kiev decided only Ukrainian should be taught and spoken. They knew what they were doing to “those ppl.” Then they sent the Azov regiment in to put them in their place. And now here we are.