Eric Yodis

We have all heard it over and over… the reason Russia invaded Ukraine is because of NATO expansionism. The problem is that NATO does not have an expansionistic vision. If they had some form of a Manifest Destiny, they would be pressuring Ukraine to join them and at the very least, they would have made it easy for Ukraine to join the alliance. However, the Kyiv Independent refers to this propaganda as a red herring, “What Putin is after in Ukraine and beyond is not just a rollback of the prospect of NATO membership. It’s not about securing Ukraine’s neutrality,” he said. “It’s really about turning Ukraine into a subservient vassal state with a puppet government that does his bidding.¹“

We lived in eastern Ukraine from 1995 until we fled the war of Russian Aggression in 2014. There was no real movement within Ukraine to join NATO before then. In fact, only twenty percent or thereabouts of the Ukrainian population wanted to join the alliance. That number soared to over fifty percent after Russia invaded the Crimean Peninsula and the Donbas in 2014. Once again that number soared to over 80% in 2022 when Russia committed a full -scale invasion of Ukraine². A number of European leaders and a new American president continue to make it clear that Ukraine will not have a place at the table in NATO.

The point to be made here is that NATO is not expansionistic nor pressuring Ukraine to join, but rather it is Russia’s neocolonialist expansionism that is pushing Ukraine toward NATO. If Russia were only a more pleasant neighbor, Ukraine would have been happy to go along their merry way without NATO. Of course, before 2014, most Ukrainians could not conceive that Russia would attack them. The thought of Russia invading with such brutality was beyond the imagination, but the more the unthinkable became reality, the greater Ukrainians began to hope for an alliance with a more civilized society.

The irony is that Russia accuses Ukraine of having NATO ambitions and Russia accuses NATO of having expansionist ambitions, but in truth, it is Russia’s treachery that validates the very existence of NATO and is the sole reason for its expansion.

¹Januta, Andrea, May 26, 2025 – Why did Russia invade you Ukraine: Debunking Putin’s root causes claims, https://kyivindependent.com/why-did-russia-invade-ukraine-moscows-claims-of-root-causes-unpacked/

²Hodunova, Kateryna, Jan. 28, 2025 – Why did Russia invade Ukraine: Despite Trump’s Claims, it Wasn’t because of NATO, Jan.28, 2025, https://kyivindependent.com/despite-trumps-claims-russia-didnt-invade-ukraine-because-of-nato/

https://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2014/11/20/7044855/

https://www.unian.ua/society/166578-kilkist-prihilnikiv-vstupu-ukrajini-do-nato-zrosla-opituvannya.html

https://tsn.ua/ukrayina/70-ukrayinciv-proti-vstupu-do-nato-prote-bilsha-polovina-za-priyednannya-do-yes.html

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Eric Yodis has served through WorldVenture in Ukraine since 1995. After nineteen years in eastern Ukraine with his wife, Beth, they fled the war of Russian aggression in June 2014. Since 2015, they have lived in the Kyiv Oblast, but have once again been forced to evacuate due to the continuing war of Russian aggression against the peace loving people of Ukraine. Currently they split their time between the U.S. and Ukraine.