Because that’s not the reason the Russian citizenry supports it, which means it isn’t bullshit. Yeah, the Russian state is mostly interested in keeping NATO off its borders, but those Russian speakers in Ukraine usually have family in Russia too. They’re acutely aware that the neo-Nazis want to remove all the ethnic Russians from these regions, and at this point if Russia pulled out I think a majority of Ukraine would support them by expelling or executing anyone who was found “collaborating” with Russia.
Because that’s not the reason the Russian citizenry supports it, which means it isn’t bullshit. Yeah, the Russian state is mostly interested in keeping NATO off its borders, but those Russian speakers in Ukraine usually have family in Russia too. They’re acutely aware that the neo-Nazis want to remove all the ethnic Russians from these regions, and at this point if Russia pulled out I think a majority of Ukraine would support them by expelling or executing anyone who was found “collaborating” with Russia.