Trump is parroting a revisionist narrative that the Russians will be pleased to hear. This triggered me to revise some previous research on Russian-NATO relations.
The real position of Russia is more along the lines of NATO being the instigator over a period of decades, and Ukraine is a useful asset to them with their desire join NATO a convenience.
Easiest to digestive summary that I can find easily is:
They also like to ignore that anything NATO and Ukraine have done in the 8 years prior to the recent invasion follows their actions in 2014.
They point to verbal statements in 1990 at the time of Gorbachev, and suggest that new members east of the lines drawn at the time contravene them. But those were made before the fall of the USSR and the geographical and political landscapes changed very rapidly within a couple of years.
It could be considered valid, to a point, but they’ve blessed some of that expansion and also signed the NRFA. They’ve been pretty bipolar about this for over 30 years.
This is Putin’s agenda, attempting to exert some power and gain an asset…gone wrong. Trump appears to be making himself a lifeline to it going right.