I didnt mean it to be unkind , so apologies if it was taken that way...

Belarus and Ukraine are not huge sources of geo-political risk for NZ'ers especially. Lets face it , the West doesnt really care about them. No Western nation will go to war with Russia over these nations. We saw that with Georgia which still has parts of it occupied illegally by Russia .
And Trump is emasculating any international forces bravado, so they are less likely to stand up to even blatant aggression .
As America steps aside in world peacekeeping duties these microagressions chew away at neighbouring countries rights. It is geopolitically important for Russia to keep this barrier to the West and they will stick at retaining it much more than the West will want to inconvenience itself at the risk of waking the bear.

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