It was never about NATO. It's about the Bessarabian Gap and the Black Sea. Putin wants the potential invasion routes into Russia.
Egypt?
- USA is just going to come across either Alaska, the North Pole, or EU allies' military bases.
- UA/Finland/etc are going through their land borders.
- Rest of EU is going to have a problem without sending troops through their neighbors. (And using the Black sea is just a huge detour ...)
- China would use its land border.
The invasion occurred because of Ukraine's movement toward the EU which, eventually, would curtail the ability of Putin and the oligarchs to swindle Russias oil and gas wealth through rampant price fixing and kick-backs. Everything else was rhetoric.
What meaningful move did Ukraine make towards joining EU to trigger an invasion?
TIL!
Russia invaded and annexed Crimea in 2014. Pretending this counts is like charging a rape victim with criminal assault because they fought back.
I was just outlining the timeline and showing that their desire to join EU/NATO was not something dreamt up post-2022.