“Ukraine had the chance to treat their people in the East humanely, and they did for 24 years...but I guess they changed their minds.”
Well, when part of your country declares independence that part also declares civil war. The one leads to the other, just as night follows day.
When Kosovo declared independence from Albania, the west fought for them and even went to war. Ukrainians in the Donbass do the same thing and it’s crickets from the west. They ignored the fact that 14,000 were killed in 8 years in eastern Ukraine, mostly civilians, as the Azov battalion and other nationalist militias were allowed to shell and shoot at them 24/7. America picks winners and losers rather discriminately, I’d say.