Does Ukraine not have weapons to strike inside Russia?

[Samrob]

Are all their weapons defensive? If so what is Putin talking about? What had he to fear from Ukraine?

[JohnSJ]

1. Ukraine was never a threat to Russia.

[Ocelot II]

2. Putin was never afraid of Ukraine; he just wanted it back.

Ukraine was once part of the USSR/Russia, and Putin wants to restore his "empire."

[melm00se]

3. This move

is to serve 2 purposes:

1. Reestablish the Russian Empire. Except for the last few decades, the Russians have had an empire. Under the Tsars and under the Soviets. Their empire collapsed with the break up of the USSR. They - want - it - back.....

2. Move closer for the Russians to have warm water port that does not require their ships to pass thru a constriction point.

Their next target will be Turkey. The Russians will undermine Turkey's NATO membership and thren strike.

[Dial H For Hero]

4. Only to a limited degree.

[Happy Hoosier]

5. Propaganda as pretext.

Ukraine was never a threat to Russia.

This is an imperial land-grab, plain and simple.

The ONLY question is what the world will do about it.

Right now, the response is.... fairly mild, in my view. I hope that changes. This is a BIG test for Biden.

[sarisataka]

6. They have a missile battalion

That could reach into Russia a few hundred miles. It wouldn't make much difference however.

As others have said, it was not about Ukraine's military threat to Russia. An independent Ukraine is a threat to Putin.

[Tomconroy]

7. Small air force. Not sure how much survived the initial

missile attacks. Without control of its own air Ukraine's ability to defend even itself is limited.

[Swede]

8. I wonder if they have cruise missles?

Send a few of those to Moscow.

[Dial H For Hero]

13. Not many, and the ones they have don't have the range to hit Moscow.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

14. Thats a shame.

[MineralMan]

9. Yes, they do not.

[Voltaire2]

10. The threat was NATO membership.

And in retrospect it was idiotic to expand NATO beyond its original membership into the former Warsaw Pact nations. How did we think Russia was going to react? What was our plan when, inevitably, Russia reacted?

None of which justifies Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. I just don’t see how this wasn’t obviously going to happen, and how it was equally obvious that there was no good response.

[Ohio Joe]

11. They would never win with such a tactic...

In fact, such a tactic would have devastating consequences. Putin would reply with massive strikes that would kill very large amounts of civilians.

No... I suspect their best bet is to make it look like their military folded quickly, they merge into the civilian population and then fight unconventional warfare from there. At least... That is what I would do.

[dalton99a]

12. Ukraine gave its nuclear missiles to Russia in return for a security agreement

which Putin later declared null and void