Can we at last acknowledge that having Ukraine join NATO was a bad idea? (Strategically, this is on par with Russia placing missiles in Cuba.) If we really thought Russia was so weak as to not oppose this idea, why didn't NATO just move into Ukraine and take over its defense? One explanation for pushing Ukraine to join NATO is that hatred towards Russia was ginned up in response to Russia's alleged interference in the 2016 US Presidential election. Do you have another explanation for why we wanted Ukraine to join NATO?