They spent years provoking it. There is a lot that can be said about this war, but to suggest that it is a one sided bully vs. victim conflict is not just naive. It is intentional cognitive dissonance.
I guess Democrats forgot all about that “nuance” thing.
No. The premise of your assertion is that Ukraine is in Russia's imperial "sphere of influence," so you are begging the question, because that is exactly what Russia is trying to establish by force.
The US tolerates lots of countries allied with Russia near its borders: Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua. Men were hanged at Nuremberg for waging aggressive war, which means for territorial aggrandizement, which is what Putin is doing. I do not think it's prudent to return to the pre-WWII system of empires competing for spheres of influence which produced two world wars.