Ukraine joining NATO has been Russia’s clearly stated red line for decades, guarantees for the non-expansion of NATO into the former Eastern Bloc, Ukraine chief among them, was even a major condition for the Soviet Union to agree to dissolve. Then NATO and the US organized the Maidan coup, and Ukraine started ethnically cleansing Eastern Ukraine of Russian speakers to the point that Ukraine was in a civil war with the breakaway republics.
Russia tried to deal with this diplomatically for many years through every channel at their disposal, but as it turned out NATO, the US, and Ukraine were negotiating entirely in bad faith to give Ukraine time to militarize. This war was several decades in the making and Russia was not at all the aggressor, even if they severely miscalculated what the cost of the war would be.
IEatDaFeesh@lemmy.world 3 days ago
The fact that Ukraine was starting to get into NATO effectively meant more Western influence near Russia. Also, any plans of Russian expansion would be dead because Ukraine would be a NATO country. So I think what he meant by “choking Russia” is disallowing them to take over Ukraine.