US Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed his puzzlement over Vladimir Putin’s motives as the Russian president appeared poised to invade Ukraine. Western leaders are deeply concerned that Russia has massed more than 100,000 soldiers on the border with Ukraine, prompting intense diplomatic efforts to avert war. Putin had accelerated everything that he supposedly wanted to prevent, Blinken told Germany’s Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper. Now, for example, most Ukrainians are against Russia and favour their country becoming a member of NATO, he added. Also, NATO is now stronger, solely as a re…