No, but so what?
No, but this isn't just a war between Ukraine and Russia; this is a war between world powers. Russia invaded Ukraine because he believes the US's global world order and US influence has advanced beyond where it should. If you want to put your blinders on and believe that this is strictly about Ukraine's sovereignty, that's fine.
As for the rest of the former Soviet Union, I think Putin probably does want some form of influence or control over it - I'm not contending otherwise. My point is that, as long as there is a strong US presence in the region, he can't. Obviously, with MAGA Jesus in power, that part of the equation is a wildcard, which makes it incumbent upon Europe to rearm and start quickly reorienting to develop their own military capabilities and independent foreign policy, which could include the US but should be prepared to go in a different direction if need be.
I'm pretty sure I said that Putin was a thug and that he invaded Ukraine illegally, but I'm not going to go quote myself to prove it. I agree that Putin's a thug, that he's invaded Ukraine illegally, and that he's generally just a bad guy who jails and kills his political opponents. I think I've been pretty clear about that.
What I'm saying is that you can't just see this in terms of Russia-Ukraine and you can't say the US is completely blameless. Europe, particularly Germany, is to blame, too, but for different reasons - putting themselves in position to be dominated by Russia's energy was about as stupid as it gets. Now they're reliant on US energy imports at a time when we're an unstable partner.
Yeah, not everyone is interested in the US's tandem of legalistic arguments on one hand and hegemonic hypocrisy on the other.