Putin was sounding warnings to the West about the dangers inherent in US-led Western hegemony as far back as 2007. He was roundly ignored in the name of Western exceptionalism. The Maidan Coup of 2014 was the first shot fired of this brutal conflict. No amount of reductionist and subjectivist takes can change the facts and trajectory of events leading to where we are now.

14,000 civilians were killed in the Donbass by Ukrainian shells between 2014 and 2022. Nobody in the West ever seems to mention them. Or is it that Russia lives don't matter?