“Resigning?? This isn’t a personal disagreement between Zelinsky and Putin. It’s the Ukrainian government that Putin wants to replace and control, not just this one individual.”
I guess I could have noted that the resignation(s) would have to be accompanied by a policy change.
I’ve been reading a lot in the Russian and Ukrainian media over the last couple of months using google translate and I can tell you my impression is that it goes much, much deeper.
My own view is that NATO is not the deepest level of the problem, it’s the EU. That Ukraine and Belarus could join the EU is the greatest fear to Putin’s vision of a Moscow-dominated region, sort of his own EU, the heart of which would be Russia-Belarus-Ukraine-Kazakstan, but could expand from there.
NATO is just the way these countries might protect their right to self-government from Moscow in order to make the choice to join the EU.
It’s about the deepest desire of the populations themselves for prosperity and progress.