I mean it’s the first question anyone should ask.
Were the Brits provoked in Derry in 1972 or in Amritsar back in the day?
Were the Khmer Rouge provoked in Cambodia?
Were the Americans provoked in My Lai?
Were the Bosnian Serbs provoked in Srebrenica?
Were the Soviets provoked in Katyn?
If you want to be disingenuous please don’t bring derry into it. You could stand that analogy on its head and it would be more applicable. The people of eastern Ukraine weren’t being attacked by the russians, they were being attacked by the Ukrainians…is that what you kean when you say “if there was any provocation…”