THE ATTACK BY RUSSIA WAS PROVOKED
You could argue that the provocation did not justify the attack, but to say there was no provocation is false. Here are the 3 primary provocations that led to Russia's decision to to invade:
1) NATO EXPANSION INTO GEORGIA AND UKRAINE LONG VIEWED BY RUSSIA AS THREAT TO NATIONAL SECURITY
Since 1989, when major Western leaders assured Mikhail Gorbachev that NATO would not expand east and surround Russia/ Soviet Union with NATO member countries, the Russians have warned repeatedly that doing so would not be tolerated. That Putin and Russia view NATO as a threat to national security is beyond doubt. That NATO, whose purpose was to contain the U.S.S.R., has expanded eastward with the goal of surrounding and hemming in Russia since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 is also beyond doubt. That Russia feels that the agreement made in1989/1990 with the United States and NATO have been violated is also beyond doubt. Below are two articles that make a strong case that NATO and the United States did at the minimum violate the spirit of the agreements made to reunify Germany.
Very Detailed Overview by George Washington University of Why Russia See the Aggressive Expansion of NATO towards and on it border as a betrayal and a threat to its national security. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/russia-programs/2017-12-12/nato-expansion-what-gorbachev-heard-western-leaders-early
The U.S Offer to Limit NATO Expansion
https://web.archive.org/web/20201225012442/https://www.belfercenter.org/sites/default/files/legacy/files/003-ISEC_a_00236-Shifrinson.pdf
Arguments can be made that the United States and NATO did make promises to Mikhail Gorbachev, which the U.S.S.R. would not have agreed to move forward with the reunification of Germany. Counter arguments can be made that since the promises made in writing and and speeches were only made in discussions surrounding the crafting of the agreement, but never made it into that agreement, that technically speaking no written agreements were broken. But just because promised made did not make it into the reunification does not mean they were not broken. And the fact remains that decades of U.S and CIA efforts to damage and undermine Russian interests and security have resulted in Russia and its people seeing the U.S led NATO as a dangerous security threat that is far from being benign and strictly defensive in nature.
And with with terrain and geography making Georgia and Ukraine far bigger threats to Russians security than countries like Finland, Russia's demand for neutrality from these countries makes sense if you view having masses of NATO/US troops and missiles stationed on your borders as threat.
How would the United States react if China were to station large numbers of troops and missiles on the U.S. Mexican border?
Bottom-line, when it comes to Ukraine, Russia's security interests are far more legitimate than those of the United States.
2) VIOLENT OVERTHROW OF LEGITIMATE DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED UKRAINE GOVERNMENT BY CIA/US , AND INSTALLATION OF NEO-NAZIS AND ULTRA-NATIONALISTS WITH LONG HISTORY OF PERSECUTING/KILLING RUSSIAN HERITAGE/RUSSIAN SPEAKING UKRAINIANS IN EASTERN AND SOUTHERN UKRAINE REGIONS.
In 2010, Viktor Yanuskenko was elected as president of Ukraine. The election that he won had been closely monitored by international observers and was certified to be free.
Then in late 2013 early 2014 Viktor Yanukovych was faced with a choice go with an aid package from the European Union that would have forced austerity programs on Ukraine or go with Putin's counteroffer Russian aid package of the same $15 billion dollars with no strings attached, and a 33 percent discount on natural gas. The EU package had been offered first and Yanukovych had indicated he would accept it and the terms that came along with it, but when Russia responded with its more generous, less controlling aid package, Yanukovych changed course, indicating that he would likely be going with the Russian aid package. This of course was not not what the United States wanted and it was not what the Ukraine's highly nationalist, anti-Russian culture "Fatherland Party" wanted. This dissatisfaction rapidly grew into violent riots, and when under great pressure from the United States and Western Europe Yanukovych was forced to give up on restoring order and ceded the streets and many government buildings to the violent, gun-toting rioters, he was forced to flee the country, even after agreeing to hold early elections to allow the people to decide which way to go.
The violent overthrow of the democratically elected government led by anti-Russian nationalists and Neo-Nazis angered and disgusted Donetsk and Luhansk citizens, of which about 90 percent had voted for Yanukovych. And it led both regions to declare independence in March of 2014. And it paved the way for Russia to move into, and be welcomed by the vast majority of Crimean's who see themselves as Russians due to the nearly 200 years their region was part of Russia.
Note: Ukraine was given administrative control over Crimea by the USSR in 1954, but the Russian heritage Crimean people never viewed themselves as Ukrainian. Of course there was more than one source fueling the violent coupe including corruption and nepotism in the Yanukovych Government, but all of that could have been dealt with via the elections he agreed to move up. Instead, it was a violent coupe, engineered by U.S. State Department officials such as Victoria Nuland who coordinated with the far right and the neo-Nazi elements who provided the violence to force Yanukovcyh out of office.
The whole mess is far more complex that what can be covered in few paragraphs . This article provides a balanced overview that acknowledges the legitimate reason for Ukrainian dissatisfaction with their government, while also pointing out that those issues could have been resolved at the ballot box: Here is the article link: https://jacobin.com/2022/02/maidan-protests-neo-nazis-russia-nato-crimea
US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland together Neo Nazi Svoboda leader Oleh Tyahnybok (left)
3) FROM 2014 THROUGH EARLY 2022 NEO-NAZIS AND UKRAINIAN ARMED FORCES EXECUTED CAMPAIGN OF VIOLENCE AGAINST RUSSIAN PEOPLES LIVING IN THE SEPARATIST REGIONS OF DONETSK AND LUHANSK
Starting in 2014, in violation of both Minsk Agreement, UAF forces, including the infamous neo-NAZIS Azov brigade attacked ethnic Russians in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The attacks included artillery attacks on towns and cities that killed many thousands of civilians and out and vicious terrorist style attacks by Neo-Nazis and extreme nationalists. As the attack were going on, Ukraine with the training and billion of dollars of support from the United States rapidly expanded the size and capability of it army over the eight years it spent violating the Minsky agreement. By late 2021, the Ukrainian military was the largest in Europe and well over 100,000 troops were poised along the borders of Luhansk and Donetsk and were due to begin a massive attack on the much smaller forces of Luhansk and Donetsk to forcibly bring them back into Ukraine. Something the people of these regions did not want.
It was the imminence of this attack that drove the timing of the Russian invasion.
For more about the U.S proxy War against Russia.
https://strategic-culture.org/news/2021/12/18/us-proxy-war-against-russia-ukraine-afghanistan-syria-redux-option/?ysclid=lj3haqd1bn101540849
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