comment: >
  
  I accept that it is debatable in the sense that anything could be debated, but hardly in any realistic sense.
  If Russia invaded an actual Nato member the response would be vastly different. Russia would not have military assets capable of threatening missile strikes against Nato members within hours. After any first strike effect, Russia would only be able to retaliate with nuke subs and similar mobile, hard to track assets.
  Russia would not have a port in the Baltic Sea. Given how thoroughly Russian internet presence was torn to shreds in the first months of 2022, Russia would likely not have any internet facing military adjacent systems still online.
  The only way it wouldn't escalate to nuclear war would be if Russia started with nukes.
  We stand with Ukraine, and we give them support, but painting this as the same thing as Russia directly fighting Nato only helps Russia see itself as a peer.
  Fuck Russia for every Ukrainian child, civilian, soldier who has died in this idiocy.
context: "De Facto" literally means not in accordance to law, but effectively the same.  Nearly every single NATO member is providing military assistance to Ukraine.  The effective difference between the aid they are retrieving and full NATO membership could be debatable since NATO doesn't require member nations to send ground forces or control airspace or even declare war with the invading nation.