Right, so it IS about russian imperialism, in which Putin believes Ukraine cannot be free and independent from Russia.
Russia was willing to let Ukraine be. Does that sound imperialistic to you?
If you want to see imperialism, that comes from the West. We couldn’t let it be, so we made moves to expand towards Russia. We are the imperialists.
But we’re the good guys right? We can do whatever we want and we are the good guys, no matter what we do. Nobody is allowed to respond to us, because they become the bad guy.