Understanding Putin's narrative about Ukraine is the master key to this crisis

[Beastly Boy]

2. Jonathan Steele doesn't understand Putin's narrative. He buys it, hook, line and sinker,

without questioning it. Putin's narrative is very deliberate, and the state of his patience or temper has nothing to do with it. His "feelings" never got in the way of his agenda.He couldn't care less of the Minsk accord, just as he doesn't care about the Budapest Memorandum in which Russia guaranteed Ukraine's integrity and security. The Minsk accord itself, which Ukraine was forced to sign under duress, was a violation of that memorandum. In fact, the Minsk accord is now in his way of further violating Ukraine's territorial integrity, and Putin is all too happy to toss it aside as well.

Putin is not interested in creating a "frozen conflict" in Donetsk and Luhansk. He's had that conflict going on since 2014. Now he wants control of all of Ukraine, as a first step of restoring the Russian (later Soviet) Empire of last century. Thats the mission he repeatedly returns to in his narrative.

Mr. Steele just doesn't get it, or else he is deliberately pushing Putin's talking points.