– But…but…but…we were told for 18 months by the political-media elites that the war had nothing to do with NATO expansion, that was “Russian propaganda”

Opening remarks – by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the joint meeting of the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET) and the Subcommittee on Security and Defence (SEDE) followed by an exchange of views with Members of the European Parliament

“The background was that President Putin declared in the autumn of 2021, and actually sent a draft treaty that they wanted NATO to sign, to promise no more NATO enlargement. That was what he sent us. And was a pre-condition for not invade Ukraine. Of course we didn’t sign that.

The opposite happened. He wanted us to sign that promise, never to enlarge NATO. He wanted us to remove our military infrastructure in all Allies that have joined NATO since 1997, meaning half of NATO, all the Central and Eastern Europe, we should remove NATO from that part of our Alliance, introducing some kind of B, or second class membership. We rejected that.

So he went to war to prevent NATO, more NATO, close to his borders. He has got the exact opposite.”

https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/opinions_218172.htm#:~:text=The%20background%20was%20that%20President,condition%20for%20not%20invade%20Ukraine

 

Yes indeed — NATO surely showed Putin who is in charge — and at a speculated cost of only 500K or so dead/injured Ukrainians empowered to deliver the message (to date & counting). The hundreds of $US Billions spent is irrelevant as they can just print the money (simply devalues the currency – no big deal) and besides there is no accounting of where the funds are going anyway…….