If there was an actual NATO expansion done by now (by just signing some papers) at any moment in the 14 years since Ukraine first officially applied to be allowed to join in 2008 (with the Ukrainian constitution having been changed for that purpose back in 2004 under Kuchma, and the partnership including joint military operations since 1994), we wouldn't be in this situation due to Article 5, and no one would died.
Riiiight... Ukraine (and now Georgia, Finland, Sweden) joining NATO is a direct threat for Russia and it can't go unanswered. It means Russia would be surrounded by hostile military bases with US military support. Not a good situation, and enough reason to engage in a preemptive war.
The war in Ukraine could have already ended by settling into an agreement with Russia where Ukraine would promise not to join NATO, and ceded a buffer zone to Russia, but European leadership and the US are publicly pressuring Ukraine not to enter an agreement while at the same time injecting billions of dollars to further war.
If there was an actual NATO expansion done by now (by just signing some papers) at any moment in the 14 years since Ukraine first officially applied to be allowed to join in 2008 (with the Ukrainian constitution having been changed for that purpose back in 2004 under Kuchma, and the partnership including joint military operations since 1994), we wouldn't be in this situation due to Article 5, and no one would died.
Riiiight... Ukraine (and now Georgia, Finland, Sweden) joining NATO is a direct threat for Russia and it can't go unanswered. It means Russia would be surrounded by hostile military bases with US military support. Not a good situation, and enough reason to engage in a preemptive war.
The war in Ukraine could have already ended by settling into an agreement with Russia where Ukraine would promise not to join NATO, and ceded a buffer zone to Russia, but European leadership and the US are publicly pressuring Ukraine not to enter an agreement while at the same time injecting billions of dollars to further war.
And that is why people are dying.
Maybe Russia just shouldn't be hostile to all these countries?
Also, all of them should have nuclear weapons.
Ukraine from the 1990s could have been a major dispenser of the means of deterrence across Europe and beyond, if not the American meddling (https://www.rferl.org/amp/the-destruction-of-ukraines-nuclear-arsenal/29699706.html).