When Russia invaded Ukraine a few years ago, I was very lib and mostly history-illiterate. I try to be more ML now, but I still don't know a lot about world history. I've heard people saying that, at the dissolution of the Soviet Union, NATO promised they would not move toward Russia, but have since continued to expand eastward. I understand this is threatening to Russia, and I understand why they would want to respond, I'm just not sure why Ukraine specifically was the response? I know we give critical support to Russia in its opposition to the imperial core, so is that the reason? I also know Ukraine is brimming with Nazis in their ranks, but is that alone a reason to invade them? Is my saying Russia invaded Ukraine a misunderstanding in itself? I'm not trying to challenge you guys, I sincerely don't know and want to understand.
I completely agree. Thank you for adding that important context and historical perspective!
However, for someone who is just beginning to try and understand this conflict and its history, going that far back can be daunting and it may be hard to make the connection to the situation we are in today. That is why i tried in my post to not go back any further than 1991, and from there to lay out as comprehensive, but also as concise of a chronology as i could, of the steps that led to the situation we have today.
I also think that we should not focus entirely just on the NATO angle because while that is certainly important, it is also a more abstract argument and one that is talked about even in mainstream or mainstream adjacent media. What is not talked about nearly as often is the existential threat to the people of the Donbass and the brutal war that was and is being waged against them by the Nazi Kiev regime.
We should not forget to mention the fact that Russia responded to a legal, according to international law (UN charter), defensive request from the Donetsk and Lugansk republics, which also according to international law (at least as it was applied in the case of Kosovo by the EU and NATO), legally declared independence from the illegitimate, coup-installed Maidan regime according to their right to self-determination.
The reason why this is important is because while some could argue that the threat of NATO expansion could perhaps have been addressed in other ways, the question that nobody who denounces Russia's intervention in Ukraine is able to answer is: what was Russia supposed to do about the imminent attack and almost certain ethnic cleansing that the people of the Donbass were facing? What other solution was there, once it was clear the Minsk agreements had failed and the Ukrainian army was massing?
I explained this aspect in greater detail in another discussion i had on this thread: https://lemmygrad.ml/comment/6093027
For OP: i recommend reading my responses there and checking out the additional sources.