Russia and Ukraine flashpoint

[SecondWar]

Ka-pi96 said:

SecondWar said:

I have to disagree there. Whilst it’s clearly not happening regardless, sending troops to Ukraine to aide them in defending the country would not be aggression against Russia, as the troops would remain defensive in nature so long as they are only operating on Ukrainian territory. I concede that Russia would certainly spin it as aggression against Russia but this is already how they are interpreting Western arms supplies to Ukraine.

Unless The West/Nato attack Russia directly (ie invade Russia territory) then it is not aggression against Russia.

If Russia had sent its army to shoot American soldiers stationed in Iraq, that would've been considered aggression against the US, rather than defending Iraq, no? Why would this be any different.

I think you'd be hard pressed to find a country that doesn't consider another country they're not at war with shooting their soldiers in a 3rd party country not to be an aggressive act of war against them, because that's effectively what it is.

I think that depends at precisely when Russia went through with that hypothetical scenario. If it was during what was officially the counter-terrorism stage when a new Iraqi regime was in place then sure. If it was during the initial 2003 invasion that really it would have been Russia helping Iraq fight off the invasion.