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If the Russian goal was 'Ukraine isn't a US proxy' then they could have just not invaded in the first place. The idea that the invasion of Ukraine was really Russia defending itself against the US is a bizarre fantasy. The goal was conquering Ukraine to eliminate it as a sovereign state, and to eliminate the identity of the Ukrainian people as distinct from the Russians. Putin literally wrote an essay on why the invasion was justified, it's nothing to do with America.
Russia is against Ukraine joining NATO because NATO membership might prevent Russia invading again once it has built up more strength.
It's no more bizare a cope than the idea that refinery repairs are a trifling expense in the midst of a war that was draining reserves even before primary income sources started going boom, or that progressively smaller relative material advantages negate manpower limits.
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What do you mean by that? Can you elaborate?
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So Russia invaded Ukraine not because of all the reasons that Putin said Russia invaded Ukraine (including in his accidentally leaked victory speech), but actually because the FBI cooperates with the Ukrainian anti-corruption department? And Putin was offended enough by the idea of a neighbouring country engaging in policing cooperation that he needed to invade the country and kill hundreds of thousands of people.
And this is despite Putin never mentioning said police cooperation at any point before or during the war?
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What on earth are you talking about? We're talking about Russia's war aims. And you haven't as yet defended your original point that all Russia wanted was for Ukraine not to be a US proxy.
If Ukraine had kicked out all American officials, refused all American aid and publicly rejected any help or direction from the US in 2013, do you really think that Russia wouldn't have invaded the Crimea? Do you think that all of Putin's open, long-held revanchist beliefs would have vanished into the air? Because all poor, innocent Russia wanted was to not have a scary US proxy on their doorstep?
They wanted Ukraine because they considered the Ukrainian nation as illegitimate, and its lands as rightfully belonging to Russia. The regime is quite open about this, and yet it still has useful idiots in the west acting as if somehow Russia launching an explicit war of conquest against its smaller neighbour is somehow a defensive move against the US, the only nation in the world that apparently has any agency.
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