This is general discussion, not war2 discussion or moderated discussion, and jon shouldn't be banned for having differing opinions. And there's a lot of truth in what he's saying. No one ever got banned from this board for supporting the invasion of iraq or the invasion of libya etc. so why now?
#1: Ukraine actually is infested with nazis. They formally folded a literal Nazi battalion into their national guard. They have some nazis in elected positions. Here's a tweet from the official ukrainian national guard twitter, showing off how the nazi battalion is greasing bullets with pig lard to shoot muslim "orcs" with. Invalid Tweet ID
These are the types of people most invested in the ukrainian identity so they have always been the most fervently anti-russia. They admire a nationalist militia, the organization of ukrainian nationalists, that ethnically cleansed polish people, killing tens of thousands of women and children, and they fly their flag everywhere.
#2: There was a more russian leaning elected leader in ukraine that got overthrown with support from the west after he tried to enter into a russian trade deal. Ever since then, russian-leaning parts of eastern ukraine have been broken away and have been trying to claim autonomy. Ukrainian militias have been shelling them constantly including increasing the shelling in the run up to this war. This is covered widely on Russian TV.
#3: NATO, the anti-russian military alliance, has been encroaching more and more into eastern territory. Russians see this is a major threat to their security. Baltic states were already admitted, when Russia was too weak to stop it, but now there was talk of bringing in Ukraine. This was clearly a red line with Russia and in the run-up to the invasion, when the US was trumpeting more and more that Russia was going to attack, i never saw anyone promise not to bring Ukraine into Nato.
Clearly russia determined that they were tired of the walls pushing in on them, tired of being shoved around, and that it was time for decisive action. Russia is a nuclear power and former superpower that has now had the west playing games in its backyard for years and wanted to reassert itself, maybe even seeing this as a moment that would escape from them if they waited around and didn't act decisively. There is a cold but rational logic to it if they want to maximize their position in the world, as most countries do. I have to think there were alternatives to invasion, and all sorts of ordinary working people suffer during war, but in the long lead up maybe putin finally determined nobody was willing to concede anything if he did not act.
Oh, forgot to mention so ill add here, let's not also forget the recent "color revolution" attempt the west did to belarus 2020, taking aim at another russian border state. insane
