DISINFO: NATO's broken promise forced Russia into invading Ukraine
SUMMARY
Just as the West promised Mikhail Gorbachev not to move "one inch" east of the Berlin Wall, NATO expanded in five waves to reach the red lines that Russia had set 18 years ago: Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia. Despite this, and with extreme restraint, Russia declared its security concerns and the need to establish a security structure in Europe through the document of security guarantees that it submitted to the US and NATO in December 2021, two months before the start of the Russian military operation in Ukraine, without receiving any response from either. Then, and only then, did Russia announce its military operation, which primarily aims (after protecting citizens in Donbas, of course) to protect Russian national security, ensure Russia's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and restore historical Russian lands. This happened after it became clear that the West - in collusion with the Nazi regime in Kyiv - plans to make all of Ukraine, especially the eastern and southern regions, a spearhead against Russia only about 500 kilometers from the capital. This made the Russian response necessary and absolutely unavoidable.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about NATO enlargement, aiming to justify Russia’s unprovoked full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
This claim has been debunked numerous times. NATO did not make any promises not to expand into eastern and central Europe back in 1990, which was confirmed by the former president of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev. Back in 2014, Gorbachev said that “The topic of ‘NATO expansion’ was not discussed at all, and it wasn’t brought up in those years. I say this with full responsibility”.
Declassified White House transcripts also reveal that, in 1997, Bill Clinton consistently refused Boris Yeltsin's offer of a 'gentlemen's agreement' that no former Soviet Republics would enter NATO: "I can't make commitments on behalf of NATO, and I'm not going to be in the position myself of vetoing NATO expansion with respect to any country, much less letting you or anyone else do so…NATO operates by consensus."
Furthermore, the claim about NATO "expansion" misrepresents the process of NATO enlargement. NATO does not "expand" but considers the applications of candidate countries that want to join. NATO is a defensive alliance, whose purpose is to protect its member states. NATO’s door has been open to new members since it was founded in 1949 – and that has never changed.
Additionally, the myth of Nazi-ruled Ukraine has been the cornerstone of Russian disinformation about the country since the very beginning of the 2013-14 Euromaidan protests, when it was used to discredit the pro-European popular uprising in Kyiv and, subsequently, the broader pro-Western shift in Ukraine's foreign policy. It has been widely debunked here.
Read similar cases that Russia’s special operation in Ukraine is due to NATO’s persistent expansion, that NATO forgot promises not to enlarge to the East, that the West promised that NATO will not move eastward, that it was agreed that NATO would never accept countries that border Russia, that the US and Russia had an agreement that NATO wouldn't be enlarged.