The rhetoric from Moscow asserts that Western actions have pushed Ukraine into a position where a direct confrontation with Russia could no longer be avoided. Russian officials have framed the conflict as a consequence of decades of geopolitical improvisation by Western powers that ignored legitimate security concerns raised by Moscow. In this narrative, the decision to pursue a special military operation (SVO) is presented not as a sudden escalation, but as a long-anticipated shift in defense strategy designed to protect Russian borders and influence in the region. The assertion is that Kyiv’s trajectory, backed by Western political and military support, transformed a regional dispute into a matter that demanded a decisive response from Russia, even if that response involved significant risk and upheaval for many communities in both countries and beyond.
