Ukraine is not Russia's vassal. The ones who get to decide what alliances Ukraine is part of are the Ukrainians. Any "demand" on that question on the part of another nation is unreasonable on its face.
But is understandable how NATO troops and ballistic missiles at their doorstep could be a worry for them. Same as USA would not accept if Canada and Mexico joined some kind of Russian defence union, as we still remember from the 'Cuban missile crises'
And we also still remember US/UK/EU... invaded and bombed Iraq, Libya and Syria and demanded their leaders to step down. And specially in Syria all US made polls indicated that the population was happy with their leader. All those countries population live in worse conditions today
And Ukraine is also in a civil war since 2014
So I would prefer that there was no invasions anywhere, and Ukraine had said no to NATO. But weighting everything I say I am not interested in a world war 3
I am saying it does not justify world war 3
It does not justify higher energy prices. It does not justify disenfranchise regular Russians. I don't want to pay for it, I will not fight for it
Ukraine itself was part of the illegal invasion of Iraq.
"Pol Pot and Khmer Rouge had long been supported by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its chairman, Mao Zedong"
For instance, they could have achieved an alliance with Ukraine by offering a better deal than Nato, but they decided to take control via warfare
This "Ukraine civil war" bullshit is purely Russian propaganda. The "civil war" is Russia invading Crimea.
Well, a "civil war" inspired, organized, and supported by "peace-loving" neighboring country, which now tries to "peacefully" topple democratic government just to finish up the job.
Russian-Georgia War, Donbas/Donetsk, Chechnya, and the most NATO has done is member states providing arms to Ukraine and words of distaste.
Those countries are right at Russia's border, US other NATO members invading countries thousands of miles away
NATO members are by far the biggest aggressors in the world, always in and out of countries, claiming to spread "freedom". The population in all the countries, they intervene, live in worse conditions today. Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan, Kenya, Afghanistan, Uganda, Ethiopia...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Bucharest_summit
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia%E2%80%93NATO_relatio...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russo-Georgian_War
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_United_States_mili...
But he’s been in power for a long time. He created the situation that he is in. Other countries don’t trust Russia and want to join the other side.
Thus if you consider the long view, he fucked this one up big time.