What role did Ukraine’s desire to join NATO play in Putin’s decision to invade the country?

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This article was published 24/02/2022 (938 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

As Russia invades Ukraine, launching the largest attack on European soil since The Second World War, the Star is working to demystify the complex geopolitics behind the war by answering readers’ questions.

Here, we look at this question: Why does Russia oppose Ukraine’s NATO membership and what role did it play in the decision to invade?

“It is like a knife to the throat.” That’s how Vladimir Putin described the possibility of Ukraine joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in his lengthy address on Feb. 21, in which he laid out his reasons for invading Ukraine.

Putin mentioned NATO 40 times in the speech.

He views the 30-country military alliance, led by the United States, as an existential threat to Russia, particularly as its membership has expanded eastward and now includes several former Soviet countries.

As a result of that expansion, NATO has now “reached Russia’s borders,” said Putin, and Ukraine’s membership would be intolerable. He described it as a “direct threat to Russia’s security.” Putin warned that, if Ukraine were allowed to join NATO, it could serve as an “advanced bridgehead” for a sudden strike against Russia.

“If our ancestors heard about this, they would probably simply not believe (it),” he said.

Ukraine has been angling to join NATO for many years. It lobbied unsuccessfully for membership in 2008, but those plans were shelved following the election of a pro-Russian government. When that government, led by President Viktor Yanukovych, was overthrown in the 2014 Ukrainian revolution, Ukraine resumed its goal of joining the alliance.

That goal is now enshrined in the country’s constitution.

Putin warned in his speech that it was “only a matter of time” before that goal was reached, which is partly why he says he had to strike.

Putin has demanded NATO close the door to any future possibility of Ukraine’s membership, but the alliance has refused, standing by its founding articles, which allow any eligible European country to be invited to the alliance and prohibit interference in those decisions from “third countries.”

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Brendan Kennedy is a Toronto-based social justice reporter for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @BKennedyStar