As the war progresses, always remember that this entire situation could have been avoided.
NATO’s decision to project its power vis-à-vis Russia by continuing to swallow up Eastern European countries on Russia's border is the first root cause of the Ukraine-Russia War. There was an unwritten but generally understood consensus among the international community that after the fall of the Soviet Union, NATO would stop expanding. NATO was supposed to have been satisfied with the 15 nations that had already joined the alliance. Well, NATO was not satisfied. Fifteen (15) more countries have become members of NATO since 1991 and many of those countries are right on the Russian border. NATO is, at its core, an anti-Russian coalition because it was originally created to fight the Soviets. Therefore, it is extremely hostile towards Russia. That's the key point to understand. Furthermore, NATO has been sending troops and ammunition to the Baltics, to Poland, and to Hungary to intimidate Russia on its border. Obviously, NATO's bold encroachment into Eastern Europe is a big security problem for the Kremlin.
Famed left-winger Noam Chomsky said many years ago that unrestrained and unchecked NATO movement towards Russian sovereign territory would provoke a conflict of massive proportions. And he was right. Now Finland and Sweden are both poised to join the alliance. So what is Russia supposed to do? Just sit there and let it happen? These belligerent actions from NATO have pushed Russia to this point. The addition of Finland, Sweden, and potentially Ukraine to the NATO alliance would be a massive blow to Russia. Such a scenario is unacceptable from Moscow's perspective.
Before the conflict began in earnest, the Minsk Agreements were a tentative peace plan that would have reduced the chance of a full-scale war. The Minsk Agreements would have allowed the separatist regions of Donetsk and Luhansk to become Russia-aligned autonomous zones while still nominally remaining a part of Ukraine's territory. That would have been a decent compromise in my view. Unfortunately, they were never implemented because neither party to the conflict was willing to make concessions on the geopolitical status of Donetsk and Luhansk. Alas, since the war began, a Ukraine emboldened by Western Powers has increased its demands and shirked peace deals that concede any territory to Russia. In conclusion, Russia and Ukraine are much further from a resolution to the conflict than they ever were before.
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