Putin’s vicious tactics in Ukraine follow similar policies in Grozny, Chechnya, Aleppo, Syria, The Crimea and elsewhere. This bully has got away with war crimes.
But has he invaded Ukraine because he never accepted the break up of the USSR, or because of what happened after the Berlin Wall fell?
When the two Germanys were re-united in 1991, the victors of the Second World War wanted Germany as a member of NATO. The Russians under Mikhail Gorbachev agreed a deal whereby Germany could become a member so long as NATO agreed not to extend eastwards even an inch.
That deal (promise) was not kept. The Russian invasion of Ukraine is illegal, wicked and unjustifiable. But we should have seen it coming.
David Quarrie, Holgate, York
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