I’m not Russian, but the difference would be that Afghanistan was a foreign, offensive venture. The war in Ukraine is a defensive venture meant to drive back NATO expansion from Germany to the Russian border, in direct contradiction to the NATO promise not to expand following the collapse of the USSR. In addition there is the persecution of Russian-leaning citizens by neo-Nazi elements in Ukraine. Ukraine has a significant Germanic population (that’s why you have people like the American political fraudster Alexander Vindmann being of “Ukrainian” identity despite having an obviously germanic name) and that seems to play a role in the existence of neo-Nazi sentiment there.
Right, and this NATO "promise" is in what treaty?