Maybe Ukraine wouldn’t have considered joining NATO had Russia not invaded and annexed Crimea.
Shinzo Abe was quite the hypocrite.
He was willing to sell out Ukraine in order to get Putin to give the Kurile Islands back to Japan.
Other Japanese are intent to reclaim the Kuriles and the portion of Sakhalin Island that belongs to Japan.
Now with Abe dead and Putin weak perhaps someday soon we will see the Rising Sun flying over Karafuto again.
I think Putin was eyeing Ukrainian resources and the whole NATO story is just another Russian excuse, just like the alleged “Genocide” excuse which nobody believed.
The war could have been avoided if Ukraine was admitted into NATO quickly without a lot of fanfare. But that would have needed to occur prior to 2014. Because once Russia stole Crimea, NATO didn’t want to formally take that on. And NATO’s reluctance to take it on, means Ukraine joining NATO was never a real threat. Nobody thought Ukraine was going to be admitted to NATO.
But now that Russia has overplayed their hand, once they are fully pushed out of Ukraine. You can bank on Ukraine joining NATO.