It is NATO that is directly responsible for this situation. The cold war was won, USSR disintegrated, and Russia was struggling. NATO’s relentless expansion gave a rallying point for Putin to consolidate his power. It is real or perceived threat of NATO, caused this invasion. This war should have been over long ago, but is still going on, because US is waging this by proxy. I don’t understand the strategic objective of spending our tax dollars on this nonsense. How many more billions we are going to waste? If we don’t stop Russia then EU will be in trouble is fine, but let EU step up to it.
Until after the sanctions EU was still buying Russian Oil and Gas. How stupid EU to put their energy security in the hands of Russia? What were they thinking?