> There recent activity looks a lot more like desperate panic from being hemmed in by NATO. Which is why Russia is embarking a course of action that directly p

> There recent activity looks a lot more like desperate panic from being hemmed in by NATO. Which is why Russia is embarking a course of action that directly precipitated a neighboring country and a near-neighboring country to join NATO, and if the war achieved Russia's full aims, would have increased the number of NATO countries by another three countries (Slovakia, Hungary, and Romania are all NATO). It also turned down a peace deal early in the war where Ukraine would have permanently forsworn NATO membership. More recently, the sham annexations of Ukrainian territory are hard to square with any claims that it's all about NATO.