To be better understand the current conflict happening between Russia and Ukraine, it’s probably advisable to try and see things from the Russian perspective - too often the narrative in western media lacks any historical context and without that context it’s impossible to understand what’s going on in the world.

1949

  • NATO founded, original members include Canada, Belgium, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal the United Kingdom and the United States of America all agree that an attack on one is an attack on all, essentially a defensive alliance excluding any attacks on colonies.

1954

West Germany: Hey can we join the alliance?

US: Sure.

USSR: Hey guys we’re a bit worried about this big alliance you’ve got and we’re bit concerned that its growing, any chance we could join too?

US: No.

1955

  • Warsaw Pact founded, the military part of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, original members include Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, USSR all pledged the mutual defence of any member who would be attacked; relations among the treaty signatories were based upon mutual non-intervention in the internal affairs of the member countries, respect for national sovereignty, and political independence.

1989

East Germany: Hey its been over 40 years now, we wanna re-unite with West Germany, we promise we won’t do any more of the war thing.

West Germany: Yeah we can do that.

USSR: Okay, but we want this new Germany to become a neutral country, the last time they were united 30 million of our people died in the bloodiest war in human history.

NATO: No, a united Germany will inherit West Germany’s NATO membership.

USSR: …

NATO: Okay we won’t station any foreign troops or nuclear weapons in the eastern part of Germany nor grow the alliance further east.

USSR: Okay deal.

1991

  • End of Warsaw Pact and USSR. The Russian Federation inherits the USSR’s seat on the UN, its international treaties etc.

1993

NATO: Hey what about expanding into the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland.

Russia: Err you guys said you wouldn’t.

1995

  • NATO goes to war against the Bosnian Serbs.

Russia: I thought you guys were a defensive alliance?

1999

  • Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland join NATO.

Russia: Err you guys said you wouldn’t. But since the alliance is growing any chance we could join too?

US: No.

  • NATO goes to war against Serbia.

Russia: I thought you guys were a defensive alliance?

2001

  • NATO goes to war against Afghanistan.

Russia: I thought you guys were a defensive alliance?

2004

  • Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia join NATO.

Russia: Remember when you said about not expanding NATO?

NATO: Sod off.

2009

  • Albania and Croatia join NATO.

NATO: Before you say anything sod off.

2011

  • NATO goes to war against Libya.

Russia: You’re attacking people? I thought you guys were a defensive alliance?

2013

Ukraine: We want to have closer ties to both Russia and the EU/the West for trade, development, not military.

Russia: No problem.

EU/the West: No if you want relations with us they’ll be exclusively with us and you’ll need to pull out of EAEU etc.

Ukraine: Never mind then we’ve got more ties already to Russia, a lot of our people are Russian, and they’re our biggest trading partner so I guess we’ll just carry on.

2014

  • The Ukrainian government is overthrown in western-backed coup d’état.

Ukraine: We want closer ties to the EU and to join NATO.

Russia: Errrr? We don’t really want more NATO members on our borders, how about Ukraine remaining neutral?

Ukraine/the West: Don’t tell us what to do.

  • The people in the east of Ukraine rebel against the government they didn’t vote for.

Russia/the West: We’re concerned about the fighting going on, any chance you could sign this Minsk Peace Treaty, saying you’ll recognise these regions as autonomous parts of Ukraine and end the fighting?

Ukraine: Okay sure.

2015

Ukraine: Actually, we lied, but what are you going to do about it?

NATO: Don’t worry we’ll send more weapons and trainers to Ukraine.

Russia: Err guys… Those are the weapons they’re using to kill the people there?

NATO: Sod off.

2017

  • Montenegro joins NATO.

Russia: Guys?

NATO: Sod off.

2020

  • North Macedonia joins NATO.

Russia: Remember the agreement?

NATO: Sod off.

2021

Russia: We’re still concerned Ukraine is killing people in eastern Ukraine, this is right on our border, 15,000 people have died now? Hello? Anybody?

  • Russia moves troops to border.

NATO: OMG why are you so aggressive, what do you want?

Russia: We think the Minsk Peace Treaty should be enforced, and we also want guarantees that Ukraine won’t join NATO, we think it’s better for everyone if Ukraine remains neutral.

NATO: No.