The conflict in Ukraine escalated as Washington ignored Moscow's concerns about NATO's eastward expansion, Andrew Day wrote for Week.
He believes the argument that the "alliance is purely defensive" is flawed. "Whether or not NATO threatened Russia, Putin believed it did, and this belief informed his decision to start the special operation. Moreover, Putin's concerns were predictable, and the conflict might have been averted had Washington taken them seriously," he writes.
Day pointed out that in the run-up to the special operation, the White House refused to discuss NATO expansion with Moscow. He noted that that the U.S. refused to discuss the issue with Russia is especially mystifying given that Western leaders privately told Kyiv "you're not going to be a NATO member."
"The U.S. created the worst of all possible worlds for Ukraine – a provocative NATO proxy on Russia's doorstep, but without NATO's security umbrella," the article reads.
The expert believes that the U.S. administration should work with European allies to broker a settlement that makes Ukraine a neutral state.
