Posting on twitter, Dr. Jill Stein (Green Party candidate for President, 2012 and 2016) has spoken out on the Russian war on Ukraine. We quote:
With latest UKR aid, cost will reach $115B + countless lives lost in war we could’ve avoided, had we not moved NATO east, supported Minsk or simply not scuttled Turkish peace deal. Meanwhile 1/2M in US are unhoused, 87M lack HC, 4M kids in poverty w/out expanded child tax credit.
Hey ALFRED MUNGO, Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014. Ukrainian’s were tired of living in poverty and saw closer economic ties to the EU as the way to fix that. Putin didn’t want Ukraine escaping Russia’s sphere of influence, so he ordered his puppet in Ukraine to kill the EU deal. At that, Ukrainians rioted and ousted Putin’s puppet. That’s when Putin invaded Ukraine. Putin’s mercenary troops then literally held Ukrainian regional government representatives at gunpoint while they held a vote to secede.
Putin’s invasion of Ukraine was put on pause when Trump began campaigning in 2015 because Trump was talking about withdrawing from NATO and Putin didn’t want to do anything serious to disturb that possibility. After Trump was voted out, Putin returned to planning his Ukraine invasion. There was only one offer Putin might have accepted to halt his invasion plans: if Zelensky offered Ukraine up as a client state to Russia. That isn’t an offer Biden had any authority to make.
The only reason the US was offering military aid to Ukraine in November 2021 was because Russia was already occupying a large chunk of Ukraine. A reference to that is in the text of the agreement you mentioned.
That November 2021 agreement was not an invitation for any greater ties to NATO than Ukraine already had. Here’s the text: https://www.state.gov/u-s-ukraine-charter-on-strategic-partnership/
And just in case you wanted one more piece of evidence that the November 2021 agreement wasn’t a cause of Putin’s invasion, here’s another fact: Russia’s military buildup along the Ukraine border began in March 2021, just two months after Biden took office. There are news articles about Russia’s military buildup at least as early as April 4, 2021. Like this one:
https://www.news.com.au/technology/innovation/military/new-footage-reveals-massive-russian-military-buildup-on-ukraine-border/news-story/b53b2eae9d7574c206cbcacacaa3351c
By April 19, 2021 it was reported that Russia had 100,000 – 150,000 troops on the Ukrainian border: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russian-military-build-up-near-ukraine-numbers-more-than-150000-troops-eus-2021-04-19/
The November 2021 agreement was a reaction to ongoing Russian aggression and correctly anticipated future Russian aggression.
The Ukraine/Russian/US war could have been avoided if Biden would have tried to negotiate and prevent the conflict. The November 2021 “Strategic agreement” between the US and Ukraine included missiles and an invite to NATO. This was too much for Russia to accept and it prompted their military buildup on the Ukraine borders. I believe that Russia thought that some compromise through talks would occur. But Biden had other plans. And, it was to provoke Russia in order to weaken them by sanctions and military assistance form “allies”, as clearly mentioned by Sec of Defense Austin. Al
I have never seen any good evidence for the proposition that Russia would not have invaded Ukraine if NATO had not expanded east. (And NATO did NOT promise not to expand.) On the contrary, Putin has been clear that he thinks Ukraine ought to be subjugated by Russia. But Russia provides plausible-sounding (and implausible-sounding) excuses that gullible people are eager to latch onto. I don’t understand why people find Putin’s Big Lies believable, but they do.
Russia has long had the intent to conquer Ukraine. If we’re going to lay any blame on the West for Russia’s invasion, it would have to be that the West has failed to deter the invasion. The meek response to the 2014 invasion made this current invasion more likely.
Sure, just ignore Putin’s long stated position that the collapse of the USSR was the greatest tragedy of the 20th century, that he wanted to rebuild an empire, and that he wanted to “De-NAZIfy” Ukraine. All of this was because Ukraine was not in NATO, but had asked to join (because it had unreasonable fears of Russian aggression.) All of this could have been avoided if the US simply supported the Minsk Agreement, which the US was not a part of because it was just between Ukraine and Russia, and which the Russian side almost immediately violated. Just as Russia violated the Budapest Memorandum.
Also, https://media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com/image/upload/t_fit-1500w,f_auto,q_auto:best/newscms/2017_51/1955941/170405-putin-flynn-dinner-jhc-1700.jpg