It was an appalling time in the Ottoman Empire. Not only the Armenian massacre but also the massacres of the Greeks (estimates ranging from 300,000 to 900,000 dead). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_genocide And those who had retreated to the underground cities in Cappadocia in times of trouble for centuries were also killed.
Starting to wunder about a so far rather non debated scenario. What if the Ukraine ends up with significant conventional military advantage? That too, could lead to all kinds of disasters. The worst one obviously that Russia goes completly mad and throws a nuke.
Seemingly out of nowhere? The Russian leadership from Gorbachev to Yeltsin to Putin has been warning NATO since 1991 that NATO expansion to the east was not acceptable and that Ukraine's membership in NATO would be viewed an an existential threat. US diplomats are on record as warning the White House of the dangers of NATO expansion. Putin warned the West in his 2008 Munich speech of the danger.
You can always find a pretext for aggression. 14 years after Putin's speech, there was no movement in the direction of Ukraine joining NATO. There was no reason to expect anything to change for years.
And Zelensky offered to give up NATO membership as a concession on Day 1.
It was an appalling time in the Ottoman Empire. Not only the Armenian massacre but also the massacres of the Greeks (estimates ranging from 300,000 to 900,000 dead). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_genocide And those who had retreated to the underground cities in Cappadocia in times of trouble for centuries were also killed.
Starting to wunder about a so far rather non debated scenario. What if the Ukraine ends up with significant conventional military advantage? That too, could lead to all kinds of disasters. The worst one obviously that Russia goes completly mad and throws a nuke.
Seemingly out of nowhere? The Russian leadership from Gorbachev to Yeltsin to Putin has been warning NATO since 1991 that NATO expansion to the east was not acceptable and that Ukraine's membership in NATO would be viewed an an existential threat. US diplomats are on record as warning the White House of the dangers of NATO expansion. Putin warned the West in his 2008 Munich speech of the danger.
You can always find a pretext for aggression. 14 years after Putin's speech, there was no movement in the direction of Ukraine joining NATO. There was no reason to expect anything to change for years.
And Zelensky offered to give up NATO membership as a concession on Day 1.
But resiled from Minsk agreements - giving some autonomy to oblasts now beseiged by Putin