Video from Office of the President of Ukraine.<p>"We do not encroach on others, but we will not give up our own. We have a wonderful army. Our guys have a unique combat experience and modern weapons.<p>This is an army many times stronger than eight years ago. We are told that February 16 will be the day of the attack.<p>We will make it the Day of Unity. The relevant decree has already been signed. On this day, we will hoist national flags, put on blue and yellow ribbons and show the world our unity.<p>We all want to live happily, and happiness loves the strong. We have never been able to give up and we are not going to learn that, ”<p>Volodymyr Zelensky addressed Ukrainians.
Russia does not want to be encircled by foreign forces aka. NATO. I get that. The US wouldn't want that either. But Russia has not done much to assure its neighbours. Russia has invaded pretty much every one of its neighbours in the last hundred or so years; and so they have reason to seek the protection of NATO.<p>The US has lost a good deal of moral authority by its reckless invasion of Iraq for example. Now it asks Russia not to do the same thing.
Russia biggest problem is that once they were a great nation. Now they are no longer but can't accept that. Since they have no way of keeping up with the others, all they can do is putting a spoke in the wheel of the others. If they hadn't been great or could accept that they are no longer, they could work their way up again for sure. Today they spend too much money on military and too little on development.