The US, in fact, did say Ukraine could potentially join NATO at some random time in the future but that it was not allowed to join it right now and they had no intentions of adding Ukraine for the foreseeable future. Ukraine has desperately *wanted* to join NATO (which is their right to hope for) and NATO continuously has denied them. Even now, NATO is not welcoming Ukraine into the fold. That is the opposite of the US insisting that Ukraine join NATO, which is both completely made up by you and just simply ... dumb. All I can take away from your post is that you're either intentionally lying or just plain ignorant.
By "hypothetical" here, you are referring to things Russian leadership have openly said and is supported by the fact that they've actually invaded numerous countries over the 15 or so years and said each time that it was part of the process of returning lands to them they rightfully own? You have an interesting definition of "hypothetical". I assume you also believe Trump hypothetically thinks the election was stolen from him.
Weirdly inconsistent wrt to hypos. Well the US has said it intended to expand NATO to Ukraine which you said was a hypo?!.
When did the US say that? It wouldn't be anytime recent, Georgia floated messages of wanting to expand to NATO and ended up having Putin knocking down their doors. It's more likely EU would be receptive of Ukraine joining. While it implies NATO membership afterwards, I don't think anyone in the US said it outright.
Its more important to keep the American perception that Ukraine is winning than the actual reality. Ukrainian youth is getting decimated and Russia has proved they can continue this type of warfare for a long long time. We do that by continuing to dump more resources into Ukraine
It's a measure of both. According to a full-on Putinist like @glynch - Ukraine has always been part of Greater Imperial Russia and has no right to even exist. Therefore there can be no invasion of what is rightfully Putin's. It's merely an internal matter. It's simply too easy for you keyboard warriors to say otherwise.
If the past 2 years have told us anything it's that Putin and his gangsters are not the best judges of "weakness" and absolutely horrible assessors of "strength."
Day 634 of Putin's 3 day special military operation of Ukraine : WE WILL USE PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE TO PROVE 2ND ARMY OF THE WORLD'S ULTIMATE PROWESS AS WE FIGHT TOWARDS THE CAPTURE OF AVIDIKA TRASH PIT
OK, Sam, this explains your posts-- a Ukraine propaganda outlet. . Since neither of us is there or has inside intelligence sources we will just have to see what develops.
