My country, Poland, has been under Russian occupation one way or another for the past 200 years. After WWI we had to fight with them to establish our border. We

My country, Poland, has been under Russian occupation one way or another for the past 200 years. After WWI we had to fight with them to establish our border. We managed 20 years of peace before they allied with Hitler and attacked as again. Last Russian soldiers left Poland in 1993. > if US hadn't spent the last few decades marching NATO's borders towards Moscow They would be in Poland right now. Completely unwelcomed. With me at the front lines. (I was born 40km from Kaliningrad) Also, US was not marching anywhere. We wanted to join NATO and EU. Central and Eastern Europeans have agency and goals independent from USA. > There is no need to start fighting if there was no threat and the Ukraine government had held together through 2014. Russian were string trouble in split Ukraine long before that. The biggest issue with Ukraine for Russians was neighborhood of EU and prosperous Poland. In 1991 after collapse of Soviet Union Polish and Ukrainian economies were exactly the same size. Last year Polish economy was 3 times bigger than Ukrainians. Ukrainians are associating success of Poland with the EU membership and related reforms. And again people, dammit, have agency. We want prosperity and security. WE DO NOT WANT TO BE BUFFER STATES. Also, 2014 revolution was over joining EU, not NATO. Ukrainians were not that excited about NATO in 2014 until Russia invaded them. Then they decided to put the goal of joining NATO into constitution.