The US obviously didn’t start the war in Ukraine. That was Vladimir Putin’s decision. As we all known, Putin really believed he’d roll tanks into Kyiv, government figures like Zelensky would flee and he would have effectively won in a matter of days or weeks. It didn’t happen like that thanks partly to Zelensky but primarily thanks to a coalition of western and eastern countries (the US, Britain, EU, Japan, South Korea) who recognized that nothing good could come from letting Putin walk all over one of his neighbors at will.
Nearly two years later the situation is changing. Putin’s forces have faced loss after loss during the first year of fighting including an attempted coup by the only group that managed to gain any ground. But thanks to months of preparations (made by a general who may have known about the coup in advance) Russia was able to mostly defend its annexed…
