Are you assuming this or did Russia state the above? I would like to know what Russia's goals are from their statement. Im sure Putin mentioned why he invaded Ukraine.
NATO was founded in 1949. The founding members were:
Belgium
Canada
Denmark
France
Iceland
Italy
Luxembourg
Netherlands
Norway
Portugal
United Kingdom
United States
The purpose as stated in the NATO charter reads:
The Parties to this Treaty reaffirm their faith in the purposes and principles of the
Charter of the United Nations and their desire to live in peace with all peoples and
all governments.
They are determined to safeguard the freedom, common heritage and civilisation
of their peoples, founded on the principles of democracy, individual liberty and the
rule of law. They seek to promote stability and well-being in the North Atlantic area.
They are resolved to unite their efforts for collective defence and for the preservation
of peace and security.
https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/official_texts_17120.htmThe Articles of the Charter spell out rules to handle international disputes peacefully rather than use of force, promote stability among themselves and other nations, eliminate conflict, maintain collectively and individually the means to resist armed attack, consult member nations when their security is threatened, and to consider an attack upon any of the members to be an attack upon all the members.
There are other articles and goals, but this pretty much covers the higher level ones.
During the Cold War, NATO expanded to include:
1952 - Greece, Turkey
1955 - West Germany
1982 - Spain
After the Cold War, NATO added:
1990 - Germany (Germany was reunified in 1990; East Germany was added to West Germany, and the 2 became "Germany")
1999 - Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland
2004 - Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia
2009 - Albania, Croatia
2017 - Montenegro
2020 - North Macedonia
2023 - Finland
2024 - Sweden
Russia's #1 issue even before invading Ukraine was NATO expansion into even more countries. Russia demanded that NATO "lines" return to 1997 definitions, which as you can see would eliminate 13 members if that demand was granted.
Ukraine began requesting admittance into the UN about the time that Biden became Resident. If you recall, he and his son, Hunter, were very cozy with Ukraine -- to the point that Trump was impeached the second he tried to dig into just how cozy they really were.
If Ukraine saw Biden as their best chance of becoming a NATO partner, Putin probably did so as well. Instead of demanding NATO contract to 1997 composition, he was now faced with preventing even further expansion.
You really have to ask the obvious question: Since when do sovereign nations allow adversaries to dictate to them how they will handle their international relationships and alliances? Russia is feeling outnumbered, and Putin doesn't want that to become even worse for Russia. How is it acceptable for Putin to dictate to any nation, including Ukraine, whether or not they can join NATO?
Best thing Trump can do is facilitate NATO's admission of Ukraine as a member, then tell Putin he has 3 weeks to withdraw his troops from the country before the entire NATO alliance comes to Ukraine's defense.
Will that start WWIII? Not if Putin has any commons sense. Look at the list of NATO members again, and see what Putin sees. Our biggest hurdle is if China decides to get involved on Russia's behalf. I don't see them doing that.