“Foreign Minister Lavrov and other senior officials have reiterated strong opposition, stressing that Russia would view further eastward expansion as a potent

“Foreign Minister Lavrov and other senior officials have reiterated strong opposition, stressing that Russia would view further eastward expansion as a potential military threat.” 22 Jan 2008 https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/08MOSCOW265_a.html https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/08MOSCOW265_a.html Despite Russia sharing its redlines with the West in 2008 NATO continued to expand its sphere of influence into Ukraine including backing the coup in 2014. So yeah, it’s unsurprising that Russia escalated each step of the way as well. I’m not arguing Russia is right, I’m arguing a war was an obvious outcome. Russia has already paid a price in the war and clearly it seeks some sort of solution.