“...thanks to Putin, NATO is expanding, European countries are lining up to support Ukraine, Russia has lost markets and friends, while Putin’s military is killing and maiming and destroying his neighbors, along with 100s of thousands of his own ... Putin is doing this. Not Vicky Nuland, not obama, not Biden, nor any former or current European leader of any NATO country...”
What you say is true. But the weak response to Russia’s invasion of the Republic of Georgia and the weak response of the West to Russia’s 2014 land grabs helped embolden the bully eleven-time-zone country to launch the all-out invasion of the one-time-zone country. Ukraine, to its credit has written a great chapter in innovative and intrepid military history.
However, after Maiden, Crimea, Georgia, etc., there was almost no way Ukrainians were going to let Putin, or “putler” as they like to call him, do that. I think they like their freedom too much.
And certainly not now after all that they have endured and have lost due to Putin and all he’s done unto them.
From conversations I had before the invasion, I kinda think Holodomor might have been “forgotten” had Putin tried to woo Ukraine like a friend or like a lover.
But, instead, he first became manipulative and then morphed into a violent, jealous ex-husband taking revenge on his ex-wife because he doesn’t like her new friends.