Expand the western empire because Putin is an imperialist. This is sounding like the ignorance and stupidity that got us WWI
There is no “western empire” - that’s Putin’s propaganda.
Ukraine until Putin's rumblings in the early 2000s that Ukraine was not a legitimate country, that the fall of the USSR was a world tragedy etc. and his glorification of Muscowite expansions -- until that point, Ukraine was satisfied enough to be between world.
They actually thought that their borders would be respected by all
But Putin's invasion in 2014 was what reinforced Ukraine's modern sense of identity
Mearsheimer describes in detail how vindictive Putin would be if things ever came to war. He foretold that a war between the Kremlin and Ukraine would be highly destructive, that Muscowy would not merely want Ukraine, it wanted to destroy Ukraine.
He predicted that if Muscowy couldn’t control Ukraine, it would damage the country so badly that it would be unviable as a country, so that any suggestion of Ukraine joining the EU or NATO would be impossible.
Basically, Muscowy would play the part of the overbearing and jealous boyfriend who throws acid in the face of the girl who wants rid of him. Motivated through pure evil and spite - if he can’t have her, no-one else could.
Mearsheimer’s work has been used by some to exonerate Putin’s actions in the war with Ukraine. His arguments have been used to attribute the blame for the war on the West; and specifically on NATO
The plain fact of the matter is that Ukraine is a sovereign state. It is not accountable to Muscowy. It is not a buffer zone and has neither a role in, nor any responsibility for, Muscowy’s national security.
The choice to join NATO is Ukraine’s.
The choice to interfere in Ukraine’s affairs was the Kremlin’s.
The choice to invade Ukraine was russia’s.