Cv5, you mean like the Budapest Memorandum where the UK and the US convinced Ukraine to give up its Nuclear Missiles - to Russsia!?! - in exchange for Russia's Promise not to attack or threaten Ukraine. Yeah, that lies in the dust now.
Source: "The memoranda, signed in Patria Hall at the
Budapest Convention Center with US Ambassador
Donald M. Blinken amongst others in attendance,
[2] prohibited the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States from threatening or using military force or economic coercion against Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan, "except in self-defence or otherwise in accordance with the
Charter of the United Nations." As a result of other agreements and the memorandum, between 1993 and 1996, Belarus, Kazakhstan and
Ukraine gave up their nuclear weapons ...
According to the three memoranda,
[5] Russia, the US and the UK confirmed their recognition of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine becoming parties to the
Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and
effectively abandoning their nuclear arsenal to Russia and that they agreed to the following:
- Respect the signatory's independence and sovereignty in the existing borders.[6]
- Refrain from the threat or the use of force against the signatory"[3][4]
From:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budapest_Memorandum
If Ukraine had been accepted into NATO in 2008, Putin would most probably not have attacked it:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukraine–NATO_relations#Bucharest_summit:_2008–2009 He's not foolish enough to attack a NATO country. And NATO is a defensive alliance only. Article 5 is not about attacking any other country, but only taking an attack on one as an attack on all. Also NATO did not accept Ukraine precisely because they thought Putin may give that as an excuse to invade. But now their very non-acceptance led to his invasion. Moreover, when Finland and Sweden saw Putin's aggression, they applied to join NATO. So if Putin considered Ukraine a threat, when it wasn't even close to joining NATO, why not Finland and Sweden? The Truth is Putin respects strength and won't commit further aggressions if he knows he will lose. That's why he's not attacking Finland or Sweden. Against Ukraine, he thought he'll win easily, but yeah, that didn't happen.
Here is the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense estimates of number of troops Russia has lost in its unjust invasion. 65000.
For context, Russia lost nearly 15,000 soldiers in its 10 year War with Afghanistan. America lost some 2500 in 20 years.
Wiki: "
Over 15,000 Soviet troops were killed in Afghanistan from 1979 until 1989." That was across 10 years here.
Wiki: "There were
2,456 United States military deaths in the War in Afghanistan." This is 65,000 in some 8 months.