What was Vladimir Putin's goal?

      The Russian leader's initial aim was to overrun Ukraine and depose its government, ending for good its desire to join the Western defensive alliance Nato. But he failed to capture the capital Kyiv and has now shifted his ambitions to Ukraine's east and south.

     Launching the invasion on 24 February he told the Russian people his goal was to "demilitarise and de-Nazify Ukraine", to protect people subjected to what he called eight years of bullying and genocide by Ukraine's government.

     The claims of Nazis and genocide in Ukraine were completely unfounded. As was a Russian allegation that Ukraine was building a plutonium-based dirty bomb.

     Putin states that the West has deceived Russia by the expansion of NATO to its very borders. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are members of NATO (acronym for North Atlantic Treaty Organization), as are Poland, Bulgaria and Romania. If Ukraine were to join the EU, and inevitably NATO, this would put NATO forces within 400 km of Moscow. NATO expansion has resulted in Russia losing huge areas of territory flanking its western approaches, a traditional invasion route. Putin will absolutely not accept Ukrainian membership of NATO.

Author: Paul Kirby

Source: BBC News

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