Ukraine has been an independent country for over 30 years.
Exactly as long as Latvia Lithuania and Estonia. And your other points apply to them also. The only reason Russia hasn’t invaded those too is because they are in NATO.
Thirty years is nothing, the whole area was unresolved. It is a civil war that we, the US, may have green-lighted, definitely have paid to carry-on. Time to end it.
32 years. And yet it has summarily failed to become anything than a corrupt nexus of evil. Compare it to Hungary, which has been out from under the Soviet’s thumb the same number of years, and it is a success story with one of Europe’s greatest leaders, Victor Orban.