Zelensky was elected democratically. If you are saying that west supported him to get elected then I need to see some proof.
After Yanukovych was ousted by neo-Nazis in a coup with Western support, Poroshenko divided the country along linquistic lines. The Russian language was removed as an official language. Zelensky supported bringing back the language, thereby garnering Russian support, and then backtracked after victory.
Ukraine's parliament approved a law on Thursday that grants special status to the Ukrainian language and makes it mandatory for public sector workers, a move Russia described as divisive and said discriminated against Russian-speakers.
www.reuters.com
In the meantime, with Crimea and Donbas out of elections, the Russian portion of the population became underrepresented long before the Russians in Ukraine were betrayed by Zelensky. They basically became disenfranchised.
After his election, all of his main opponents were kicked out of Ukraine, so he's in effect a dictator now. He only has a very weak opposition.
Ukraine ceased being a democracy after the coup in 2014. And now it's basically in a pseudo-civil war.
And Why would West/NATO Wants to do that?
NATO/WEST are far Superior in Resources to Russia. It is not even a contest.
Russia has the capacity to recreate old Soviet armies.
For example, a T-90M costs $1.5M to produce, a BMP costs $800K. A Su-30SM costs $20M. A Su-35 costs $25M. A Su-57 costs $35M. An SSN costs $900M. An advanced frigate costs $300M. 2000 T-90Ms will cost Russia only $3B to build. So you can extrapolate the numbers he can build very, very quickly if he wants to.
Right now he has 7000 T-72s in storage that can be upgraded to the B3 standard for $200K per unit. He also has 21000 IFVs that will cost $100K to upgrade. The overall cost to upgrade them all is merely $1.4B for the tanks and $2.1B for the IFVs. He also has other types of armoured vehicles in storage. Not counting the new armoured vehicles he can build at an insane rate.
To create an Indian armoured division with 3 brigades, Russia needs 300 tanks, 180 BMP-2s and 180 artillery pieces. That's $810M (we need over $2B). We have 3 armoured divisions for invading Pakistan in 3 Strike Corps. Russia can create 10 such units with just $8.1B. Merely upgrading existing inventory to form 10 such units will cost them $1B, which they can raise within a year. So with $10B, the Russians can raise 20 new armoured divisions within a few years composed of upgraded and new tech.
Putin has $300B in his war chest right now, money he can spend immediately, what we know of. If the Chinese feel the Russians are being serious, you can bet the Chinese will also contribute money to force the US's budget towards matching this army instead of the USN in the Pacific.
And Russia's formations are designed in such a way that they need very little manpower. They need less than 300,000 men to equip 9000 tanks, 21000 IFVs and 12000+ heavy artillery pieces like howitzers and MLRS. This is their existing inventory. They can raise a mini Soviet army in a year or two.
Neither the US nor Europe can compete with the Russians today without breaking their economies with their ridiculous prices.
Plus, being recent, some of Russia's nuke delivery systems are much more advanced than America's.
In any case, the West wants Russia in its current form gone.
If Russia Knew That Ukraine Is never going to be part of NATO, then why this invasion?Let Zelensky make noise.
Because of uncertainty. Even if Ukraine is not allowed into NATO, the West will still equip Ukraine to NATO standards. After that it's just a paper signature. If the US Abrams divisions end up crossing the Dnieper by creating a bridgehead unchallenged, they will very easily bypass Belarus and there's very little Russia can do to stop the US from advancing towards Russia's deeper territories, like Moscow and Volgograd.
Read up on the Cuban missile crisis, this is simply a repeat of that.
Again, Russia Is No where as close threat to US/WEST as USSR WAS.
Russia is more dangerous today than the USSR ever was in history. It will take an extraordinary amount of effort for the West to challenge Russia in a short time. Only nukes are the great equaliser.
Yup! That Intelligence failure wasn't good, But Neither france nor germany is clueless, Infact I think they are surpurised that putin chose war oer such a trivial matter.
Russia militarizing have more to do with their economic conditions.
Not so trivial...
LOL! How is India enemy of US?
China maybe, But even with china I don't see a war in foreseeable future.
Also, NOne of these countries(I/P/C) are stupid enough to go war with each other especially for US.
This is paranoia IMO.
After Russia, it's China's turn. After China, it's India's turn.
India's population in 2050 = (US + EU) X 2 on a bad day. India is a potential hegemon, without even trying to become one. Even the US+EU combined will be dwarfed in comparison after 2060 or so. So they need to curtail India in the 2030s or 40s, before we can grow too big.
Politically too, the Third World with a potential population of 5 billion outside India will be more than willing to side with India over the long term, as long as we play our cards right.
Plus the Democrats in the US have started destroying their social fabric via feminism. The most recent example being Biden telling a young girl to get into a serious relationship only after she is a biological senior citizen, 30 years old, with a broken paid bonding mechanism. They are being indoctrinated to become men in order to control their voting choices. Many of their men will immigrate out of the country looking for young wives. If they don't change their system, the West will no longer have a future.
It's not difficult for the US to push India and Pakistan into a nuclear war in the late 2030s, early 2040s, so Pakistan is a threat we need to deal with long before China is taken care of by the US. Had the SU not gone into decline in the early 80s, we would have taken Pak out by the mid 80s. So Pakistan is the patsy they will use against India. If Pakistan is dealt with, there's not much the US can do after. At best, they will have to sit in China wondering how to contain India.
