For years, Putin didn’t invade Ukraine. What made him finally snap in 2022? | Anatol Lieven

This war is Russia's fault. But European nations rebuffing Russia during the noughties did not help

Why did Vladimir Putin invade Ukraine and try to capture Kyiv in February 2022, and not years earlier? Moscow has always wanted to dominate Ukraine, and Putin has given the reasons for this in his speeches and writings. Why then did he not try to take all or most of the country after the Ukrainian revolution of 2014, rather than only annexing Crimea, and giving limited, semi-covert help to separatists in the Donbas?

On Friday's one-year anniversary of Russia's criminal invasion of Ukraine, it is worth thinking about precisely how we got to this point - and where things might be going.