In their telling, the Ukraine invasion is the United State’s fault because it “expanded” NATO too aggressively, threatening poor Russia. How would we like it if Mexico joined a military alliance with Russia? We didn’t like it when the Soviet Union tried to place nuclear bombs on Cuba!
In the tankie worldview, no one has agency except the United States. Poland and Slovakia and Romania and Bulgaria didn’t have the ability or right to choose to join NATO. Neither do Finland and Sweden. These are all imperialist provocations and machinations by the American empire. What other option did Russia have but to defend its borders by, uh, explicitly advocating for its own empire?
Their favorite term for the Ukraine invasion is “American proxy war,” and they think it’s particularly brilliant how the United States has gotten Ukraine to do all the dying for America’s imperial glory. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is a sadist, allowing his people to die instead of giving Russia everything it wants: full hegemony over a Ukrainian people Vladimir Putin claims do not have a right to exist.