[mopsi]

> If one country has been saying for nearly 2 decades that if another country joins NATO it means war, and then that country ratifies their constitution to seek NATO membership, and then a war happens, is it really that surprising?

I don't recall any direct threats of war. In fact, in the first few years of the war, Russia denied that their soldiers were even in Ukraine. They tried to portray the war as a civil conflict within Ukraine.

As to indirect threats and vague hints of total annihilation, Russia has been threatening everyone in Eastern Europe over everything they don't like; from EU and NATO to insignificant things like parking fines that their diplomats have been raking up, and this bullshit has been going on straight from USSR's collapse in early 1990s. Russia's permanent unwillingness to offer peaceful and mutually respectful relations is a key driver behind Eastern Europe seeking closer relations with Western Europe. Handing national sovereignty to Russia over threats is not a serious option.

Ukraine's mistake is not that they seeked NATO membership, but that they underestimated the Russian threat and didn't hurry with EU and NATO integration like other countries did.