I ghink Mate and Choksky's 'arguments' are faicle.

Didn't the Russians spend years attempting to get the West to wake up to what was happening in Ukraine and understand the dangers and potentially catastrophic consequences of their actions? That it would lead to war?

The Russians also delivered two draft treaties to the West relating to arms control, troop reductions in border areas, removing offensive missiles and a proposed structure for ensuring the broad and mutual, reciprocal, security safeguards for all countries in the region and in wider Europe.

As far as I recall all of this was not just ignored by the West but treated with something close to contempt. The West believed that Russia was so weak economically and militarily that they just had to suck up whatever the West presented them with, because they had no choice.