Life or death......

I think people don't actually realise how much the Ukraine situation actually means for the Russian Federation. For us in living in the West, Ukraine is a moral battle between the good guys and the evil guys in the east, to put it very simply.

For the Russians, Ukraine is the last stand before NATO's perpetual expansion eastwards. This isn't just about Russia vs Ukraine. This is Russia vs the West full stop. Russia is facing an existential crisis, it has gradually been hemmed into a smaller and smaller area and is facing an adversarial situation on it's Western flank. No wonder then, that for Putin, the calculus is that it was now or never to halt the tide of eastward NATO expansion.

I just hope to God, the conflict is settled sooner rather than later.