Convincing large swathes of the Western public that the Ukrainian war was an unprovoked act of Russian aggression undoubtedly stands as one of the great coups in the history of propaganda art.

Nothing could, in fact, be further from the truth than the continually repeated claim that the Russian incursion into Ukraine was “unprovoked.”

Anyone not in denial about the basic facts of the case must see that the bloody three-year-old war was caused by NATO’s eastward expansion, which was driven by the heedless transatlantic elites.

An insightful commentator named Arnaud Bertrand put together a powerful, eye-opening thread on X (formerly Twitter) that puts to lie the Establishment canard about the “unprovoked” Russian aggression.

Bertrand’s thread is a must-see for anyone who sincerely wishes to know the true origin of the Ukrainian war. You can view his thread by clicking here. You can also see it by clicking on the graphic below. It will be enlightening for anyone interested in learning about the real cause of the conflict and going beyond the shameless propaganda spouted by the fake establishment media.

Bertrand skillfully collected pronouncements from distinguished politicians, scholars, diplomats, and thinkers from across the political spectrum who had warned that NATO’s march toward Ukraine was a misguided policy that would eventually provoke a war with Russia and result in a disaster of grand proportions. These warnings date back more than two decades to Russia’s invasion.

Here are some of the distinguished personages included in Bertrand’s collection:

· As early as 1997, fifty prominent foreign policy experts (former senators, military officers, diplomats, etc.) sent an open letter to President Bill Clinton outlining their opposition to NATO expansion. It’s a “policy error of historic proportions,” they wrote in their missive.

· Henry Kissinger wrote that “to Russia, Ukraine can never be just a foreign country” and that it needs a policy of “reconciliation.” He insisted that “Ukraine should not join NATO.”

· George Kennan was the architect of the U.S. Cold War strategy and is considered by many to be America’s greatest foreign policy mastermind. Kennan warned as early as 1998 that NATO expansion was a “tragic mistake” that would likely draw a “bad reaction from Russia.”

· One of the world’s most famous public intellectuals, Noam Chomsky, said in 2015: “The idea that Ukraine might join a Western military alliance would be quite unacceptable to any Russian leader.” He also said that Ukraine’s desire to join NATO “is not protecting Ukraine; it is threatening Ukraine with major war.”

· John Mearsheimer, one of the world’s leading geopolitical scholars, famously said in 2015: “The West is leading Ukraine down the primrose path and the result is that Ukraine is going to get wrecked […] What we’re doing is in fact encouraging that outcome.”

· Jack F. Matlock Jr., former U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union, warned in 1997 that NATO expansion was “the most profound strategic blunder, [encouraging] a chain of events that could produce the most serious security threat […] since the Soviet Union collapsed.”

· In his memoir, Bill Clinton’s defence secretary William Perry wrote that NATO enlargement seemed to be the cause of “the rupture in relations with Russia.”

· Bill Burns, former CIA director, wrote in 2008 that “Ukrainian entry into NATO is the brightest of all redlines for [Russia]” and “I have yet to find anyone who views Ukraine in NATO as anything other than a direct challenge to Russian interests.”

· Malcolm Fraser, prime minister of Australia, warned in 2014 that “the move east [by NATO is] provocative, unwise and a very clear signal to Russia.” He added that this would lead to a “difficult and extraordinarily dangerous problem.”

· Sir Roderic Lyne, former British ambassador to Russia, warned one year before the war that “[pushing] Ukraine into NATO […] is stupid on every level.”

· Pat Buchanan, assistant and special consultant to U.S. Presidents Nixon, Ford, and Reagan, wrote in his 1999 book A Republic, Not an Empire: “By moving NATO onto Russia’s front porch, we have scheduled a twenty-first-century confrontation.”

· Professor Jeffrey Sachs, the internationally sought-after analyst and economic advisor, warned in a column in the Financial Times just weeks before the war broke out that “NATO enlargement is utterly misguided and risky. True friends of Ukraine and of global peace should be calling for a US and NATO compromise with Russia.”

· Vladimir Pozner, a highly respected Russian-American journalist, said in 2018 that NATO expansion in Ukraine is unacceptable to Russians. He urged a compromise in which Ukraine “will not become a member of NATO.”

· Stephen Cohen, a well-known scholar of Russian studies, warned in 2014 that “if we move NATO forces toward Russia’s borders […] it’s obviously gonna militarize the situation [and] Russia will not back off; this is existential.”

· John Pilger, the legendary journalist, wrote in 2014 that Ukraine had become a “CIA theme park” and that this situation would lead to “a NATO-run guerrilla war.”

These are only some of the experts whose prophetic predictions Bertrand assembled. What his material makes very clear is that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was as inevitable as it was predictable, given the injudicious policy of NATO’s eastward enlargement.

For decades, some of the world’s distinguished thinkers have warned against the mistaken course and predicted the disaster that is now unfolding before our eyes. The blame for this lies not with Vladimir Putin but with the foolish Western leadership.

The Kremlin’s foray into Ukraine was a foreseeable response to an uncalled-for and deranged drive to the Russian borders by the Western military alliance.

As seen above, the Russian incursion was by no means unprovoked. It was, in fact, flagrantly provoked by the misguided actions of the collective West’s leadership, which heedlessly pursued a policy that Russia viewed as an existential threat to its security.

Over the years, Russia’s chiefs have protested and repeatedly pleaded with Western leaders to stop. They have warned of unacceptable strategic positions and red lines.

In the fall of 2021, the Kremlin sent a draft treaty to NATO asking that Ukraine be excluded from the alliance in a last-ditch attempt to avoid military confrontation. In his later testimony to the European Union Parliament about this event, then NATO Secretary Jens Stoltenberg stated haughtily, “of course, we didn’t sign that.” A few months later, Russian troops crossed the border into Ukraine.

Impudently disregarding Russia’s legitimate security concerns while relentlessly driving NATO eastward against the advice and warnings of wise men, this predictable and unnecessary war has been provoked by the foolish transatlantic globalists.

To say that the Russian incursion was “unprovoked” is about as accurate as the claim that the COVID-19 vaccines were “safe and effective.” The same elites and the same corrupt media have peddled both brazen lies.