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A comment on Russian forces invade Ukraine after Putin orders attack. Parent comment

Re:Russian forces invade Ukraine after Putin orders attack by politician on Thursday February 24, 2022 @10:53AM (#30456112)
Kiev is 529 mi (~10h) from Moscow. If Ukraine were to join NATO, there would be a NATO base inside that range in days. Lockheed Martin claims its Precision Strike Missile has a 310 mile range [1]. I can understand why Putin would want Ukraine to be a friendly puppet or be demilitarized.

Diplomatically, it wouldn't be advisable to give an adversarial foreign power control over the membership of your alliance, so NATO can never give those guarantees. My belief is that Putin only sought those guarantees to fabricate a casus belli.

[1] https://www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/products/precision-stri...

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Russian forces invade Ukraine after Putin orders attack by woobar on Thursday February 24, 2022 @11:28AM (#30456627)
Latvia is ~420 miles from Moscow and is already part of NATO. What is so special about Kiev?
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Russian forces invade Ukraine after Putin orders attack by politician on Thursday February 24, 2022 @11:48AM (#30456953)
Ukraine is not part of NATO. There are many fronts, some are better to push than others.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Russian forces invade Ukraine after Putin orders attack by woobar on Thursday February 24, 2022 @01:51PM (#30458634)
I think you forgot your own argument. Let me remind you: "If Ukraine were to join NATO, there would be a NATO base inside that range [529 mi] in days."

You are trying to justify Putin's actions by inventing a hypothetical while ignoring the fact that the NATO borders within 500 miles of Moscow is a reality for years.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Russian forces invade Ukraine after Putin orders attack by politician on Thursday February 24, 2022 @06:23PM (#30461735)
NATO encircling Russia is as much of a problem as Russia encircling NATO. There's no contradiction in my argument here.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Russian forces invade Ukraine after Putin orders attack by ericmay on Thursday February 24, 2022 @11:08AM (#30456342)
Sure but the US and NATO had no interest in doing anything like that. Nobody gives a crap about Russia as an enemy except to the extent that they make themselves an enemy.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Russian forces invade Ukraine after Putin orders attack by politician on Thursday February 24, 2022 @11:13AM (#30456421)
NATO alliance members have NATO military bases, but you're right that US and NATO have no interest in adding Ukraine as a member. As we are seeing, the country is in a weak geographic position: Russia was able to stage forces to encircle >80% of the country prior to the invasion. Who would want that kind of ally?
[ Parent | on HN ]