Treaty Organization (NATO) - a military alliance formed to oppose the Soviet Union - but also to expand it. to the east. Other alternatives, such as the dismantling of NATO and the search for a common security architecture in Europe that included Russia, were ignored. At Whatsapp Mobile Number List some point, this endless military expansion to the east was going to meet Russian resistance. And why now? Because Russia feels safe after its massive military reforms since 2008, its "successful" military campaigns in Chechnya, Georgia, Syria, Libya and elsewhere, but also because Russia, with its million soldiers, has a dominant military power in the European scene.

But there is another level of analysis, that of Russian-Ukrainian relations, and here the second "original sin" was committed by Russia in 2014 in the context of the Whatsapp Mobile Number List Euromaidan revolution .. Ukraine is a large but fragile state. Its internal Whatsapp Mobile Number List Russian-speaking population in the east and south, and a pro-Western population in Galicia - but also its geopolitical situation between Russia, on the one hand, and NATO and the European Union, on the other, led Ukraine to make balances. We already saw this balancing act in 2004, when after the "Orange Revolution" the pro-Russian candidate, Victor Yanukovych, returned to power.

Even after Euromaidan, the possibility of recreating the balance between Russia and the West was real. But that possibility was cut short by the Russian annexation of Crimea and the war in Donbas. After 2014, no Ukrainian leader could engage with Russia, let alone Whatsapp Mobile Number List express pro-Russian positions. Russian initiatives pushed Ukraine towards the West, The invasion that we are witnessing today is going to consolidate the Ukrainian identity in nationalist terms, marking the definitive rupture between the Ukrainian and Russian identities. This is a painful process that began in 2014 and will tear the social fabric not only in Ukraine, but also in Russia.