Cause 1 Russia Ukraine War

Political Challenges to Sovereignty (NATO Expansion)

Many Western analysts see Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine as the culmination of the Kremlin's growing resentment towards NATO's post-Cold War expansion into former Soviet spheres of influence. Russian leaders, including Putin, have alleged that the United States and NATO repeatedly violated pledges they made in the early 1990s not to expand the alliance into the former Soviet bloc. Back in 2008, Putin warned US diplomats before a NATO summit meeting that steps to bring Ukraine into the alliance "would be a hostile act toward Russia." Putin.

"With Ukraine, our western partners have crossed the line." (Putin)

The last 10 Years: Despite remaining a nonmember, Ukraine grew its ties with NATO in the years leading up to the 2022 invasion by holding annual military exercises with the alliance and, in 2020, became one of just six enhanced opportunity partners, a special status for the bloc's closest nonmember allies. Kyiv also publicly affirmed its goal to eventually gain full NATO membership.

In the weeks leading up to its invasion, Russia made several major security demands of the United States and NATO, including that they cease expanding the alliance, seek Russian consent for certain NATO deployments, and remove US nuclear weapons from Europe. NATO responded by saying that they were unwilling to discuss shutting NATO's doors to new members.

Ultimately, it was final refusal by the alliance members that prompted Moscow to invade Ukraine in the hope of deterring NATO from encroaching further on Russia's sphere of influence