Among Russian President Vladimir Putin’s grab bag of justifications for Moscow’s latest invasion of Ukraine was a supposed imminent threat from NATO, the 73-year-old collective defense bloc that was supposedly about to use Ukraine as a springboard for aggression against Moscow.
“The danger was rising,” Putin said at Victory Day celebrations in Moscow in May, claiming that “Russia has pre-emptively repulsed an aggression,” in what he said was “forced, timely and the only correct decision by a sovereign, powerful and independent country.”
#Ukraine: A Russian T-64BV tank with KMT-6 mine plough was destroyed by Ukrainian forces in the vicinity of Maryinka, #Donetsk Oblast. pic.twitter.com/y9eNxfKyMd
— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) December 12, 2022
