I have found Professor Sakwa's account after the 2014 kerfuffle to be illuminating and reasonably detailed[1]. He splits the story into the "Ukrainian problem"

I have found Professor Sakwa's account after the 2014 kerfuffle to be illuminating and reasonably detailed[1]. He splits the story into the "Ukrainian problem" which are purely domestic that lead to the "Ukraine problem" which has wider geopolitcal implications. Sakwa's position was shared by some very illustrious names such as George F. Kennan of containment fame[2][3], unfortunately it seems to be a minority opinion among the policy makers of the West. It's depressing to see that the situation has not improved since 2014 and have festered instead. >I don't remember seeing this level of solidarity back when the US did similar things (in my opinion at least). Isn't that a sign of double standards depending on the country? Unfortunately as the global hegemon, the US (and to a lesser extent its allies) can and do get away with waging aggressive war, that's just how it is. Although the example comes to my mind is the Indian annexation of Goa in 1961, which is an aggressive war waged explicitly for irredentist aims based on historical claims (Goa was conquered by the Portuguese in 1510(!)). The world reaction to that was largely a shrug and India more or less got away with it. [1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24717077-frontline-ukraine https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24717077-frontline-ukrai... [2] https://www.nytimes.com/1997/02/05/opinion/a-fateful-error.html https://www.nytimes.com/1997/02/05/opinion/a-fateful-error.h... [3] https://www.nytimes.com/1998/05/02/opinion/foreign-affairs-now-a-word-from-x.html https://www.nytimes.com/1998/05/02/opinion/foreign-affairs-n...