Tensions on the Russia-Ukraine border have been escalating. Russia continues to amass troops,

and US officials say the prospects for averting war now appear dim. They say a full-scale

invasion could happen as soon as this weekend.

On Thursday, Russia gave the US a list of demands that they say must be met in order

to avoid an all-out war with Ukraine. One of those demands is that Ukraine should not

be allowed to join NATO, a military alliance between the US, Canada, and most of Europe.

It's an alliance that Ukraine has wanted to be part of for years.

Russia sees NATO as an alliance whose primary aim is to make Russia weaker, and so it sees any

expansion of NATO as a direct threat to its own interests. That's our colleague Yaroslav

Trophimov. He says that if Ukraine were to join NATO, it would bring the alliance closer to

Russia's capital. And obviously it would also, as Moscow points out, give the possibility of

NATO missiles being within relatively short distance of Moscow. Moscow is only about 400

kilometers from Northeastern Ukraine. But Russia doesn't see Ukraine's push to join NATO

as just a military threat. President Putin still thinks that one day the Ukrainian people who

he believes are the same people as the Russians will wake up and return to the fold of Mother Russia.

Ukraine and membership in NATO would mean that a Ukraine is gone forever from Russia's embrace.

Welcome to the journal, our show about money, business, and power. I'm Ryan Knutson.

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