NATO’s expansionism left Putin no option but to move on Ukraine, says analyst

A Moscow-based American political analyst says NATO’s expansionist policy and its disregard for Russia’s security concerns left President Vladimir Putin with no option but to launch military action against Ukraine.

Putin had to act when Russia’s proposals on security guarantees, which had been put forth with the aim of resolving the conflict diplomatically, were ignored by the United States and its NATO allies, Andrew Korybko told Press TV on Saturday.

Korybko noted that Putin had repeatedly warned against NATO’s hostile moves, inducing the deployment of anti-missile systems and strike weapons near Russian borders. However, military action was ultimately the only option left for the Russian leader to safeguard Russia’s national security red lines, the analyst added.

The military operation, as Putin laid out in his remarks on Thursday, was also an attempt to eliminate neo-Nazi elements in Ukraine, who still literally glorify their ancestors for collaborating with Nazi Germany in its genocide against Jews, Poles, Russians, and others, the analyst pointed out.

“What I think is important to emphasize further is that the leading NATO countries, in order to achieve their own goals, support extreme nationalists and neo-Nazis in Ukraine, who, in turn, will never forgive the Crimeans and Sevastopol residents for choosing reunification with Russia,” Putin said on February 24.

In 2014, Ukraine’s two regions of Donetsk and Luhansk – collectively known as the Donbass – were turned into self-proclaimed republics by ethnic Russians, leading to a bloody conflict between the government forces and the armed separatists.

We had no other choice, says Putin after launching Ukraine operation

Russia’s president says he had no other choice than launching a military operation in Ukraine.

Ukraine, as well as the European Union and the United States, claims that Russia has a hand in the conflict that erupted in the Donbass and has so far killed more than 14,000 people. Moscow denies the allegation.

The armed conflict began when a wave of protests in Ukraine overthrew a democratically-elected pro-Russia government and replaced it with a pro-West administration. The majority in those areas refused to endorse the new administration.

Speaking to Press TV on Sunday, Andrey Kortunov, director-general of the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC), said while Russia’s military action might have been launched to “de-Nazify” Ukraine, but warned that the conflict could morph into a prolonged conflict with far-reaching consequences.

The Russian analyst cautioned that Russia should not underestimate the power of the Ukrainian military, adding that this will not be an easy operation for Moscow.

Asked why NATO opted to ignore Russia’s warnings regarding its eastward expansion, Kortunov said, “It is hard for NATO to make commitments on non-enlargement.”

But even if NATO had no plan to take in Ukraine as a member, as demanded by Moscow, the military alliance has been using Ukrainian territory to deploy its military infrastructure near Russia, he noted.

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