The Russians went out of their way to prevent this war -- with the Minsk Accords, by coming to us with their secure concerns in 12/21 and by negotiating a peace deal in Turkey two years ago (that was killed by Boris Johnson)."
All of that kind of talk is total Russian propaganda lies, straight from the disinformation sewer pipes of the Kremlin's Ministry for Agitation and Propaganda.
The truth is, there were three separate Russian invasions of Ukraine, none of them justified morally or legally in any remote sense of the word "justified".
- In February 2014, Russian military forces totaling circa 32,000 took over Crimea without any prior negotiations or serious justifications.
Russian units illegally invading Crimea in February 2014 included:
- 7th Air Assault Division (Novorossiysk)
- 3rd Spetsnaz Brigade (Tolyatti)
- 10th Spetsnaz Brigade (Krasnodar)
- 16th Spetsnaz Brigade (Tambov)
- 18th Motor Rifle Brigade (Grozny)
- 22nd Spetsnaz Brigade (Stepnoy)
- 31st Air Assault Brigade (Ulyanovsk)
- 291st Artillery Brigade (Troitskaya)
- 25th Spetsnaz Regiment (Stavropol)
- 45th Spetsnaz Regiment (Kubinka, Moscow region)
- 382nd Naval Infantry Battalion (Temryuk)
- 727th Naval Infantry Battalion (Astrakhan)
- Special Operations Forces Command (Prokhladny)
Some of these were dressed up as "little green men", but many others were in their official Russian uniforms.
- Near Ukraine's Donbas by August 2014 Russians assembled 45,000 troops, of whom well over 1,000 were operating as a "stealth invasion" in the Donbas conflict zone.
Russian military units illegally in the Donbas by July 2014 included:- 2nd Spetsnaz Brigade
- 10th Spetsnaz Brigade
- 45th Guards Independent Reconnaissance Regiment (Kubinka, Moscow Oblast)
- 173rd Separate Guards Reconnaissance Company, 106th Guards Tula Airborne Division (Tula)
- Reconnaissance Battalion, 9th Separate Motor Rifle Brigade (former 84th Separate Reconnaissance Battalion)
- Reconnaissance Battalion, 18th Guards Motor Rifle Brigade (formerly 18th Separate Reconnaissance Battalion)
Russia's 2014 invasions resulted in Minsk agreements which both sides accused the other of violating, and which Vlad the Invader used as part of his pretext for invasion in 2022, unilaterally declaring Minsk "no longer existed".
- February 24, 2022, Vlad's full-scale invasion of Ukraine included circa 200,000 troops and was intended to be a matter of days or weeks before conquest of Kiev with subjugation of Ukraine.
Prior to Vlad's invasion there were no serious negotiations with Ukraine, only insane Russian demands which would strip Ukrainians of their sovereignty.
After the invasions, there were negotiations in Belarus and Turkey, which pro-Russians claim resulted in agreements later allegedly vetoed by Boris Johnson or "the Americans".
Nobody from Ukraine's government has ever confirmed that such an alleged agreement was reached.
From Ukrainians perspective, the war will not end until the last Russian soldier is withdrawn from Ukraine's recognized 2013 borders.
In the meantime, France's Pres. Macron has stepped up admirably to fill in the leadership gap left by our own dementia-reduced Pres. Biden.
If Macron is willing and able to send significant numbers of French military to support Ukraine's borders with, for examples, Moldova or Belarus, that could seriously help relieve some pressure on Ukrainians.
Thus will Vlad the Invader have accomplished the very thing he claimed to be preventing -- by strengthening NATO with the additions of Finland and Sweden, and bringing NATO forces into Ukraine.
Which invites the question of whether there was ever before a genius in the same class as Vlad the Invader ruling over the old Russian or Soviet Empires?