Russia and Ukraine

[Anomalocaris]

No one backed Russia into invading Ukraine…but Russia.

The US did, with her effort to install western oriented politicians during color revolution, open declaration to put ukraine on path to joining NATO, euromaiden revolution, etc.   Any effort to reduce russia’s sway over ukraine and make her access to and control over black sea more tenuous will eventually result in forceful pushback unless russia manages to reverse the effort without war, as indeed Russia had tried to do since about 2001 and repeatedly failed.  for russia it was always that no method, up to and including use of nuclear weapon, is off limits to ensure it maintain its sway over ukraine abs black sea over foreign efforts to push her back into being a essentially inland steppe state. 

If russia really is going to lose in Ukraine conventionally, I believe Putin will go nuclear.