It's moronic analogy. Those nations invaded other nations against their will.
The Russians are working with the people of Donbass, specifically of the armies of Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republic, to liberate Donbass of eight years of war, persecution and genocide at the hands of Ukrainian nationalists and neo-Nazis that have a burning hatred for ethnically Russian people in what used to be Ukraine.
The Azovs and Ukrainian nationalist have been using civilians as human shields in Donbass and killing them if they try to escape.
All that is why the Russian flag is going up in city after city in Donbass and local currency is being converted to rubles. This all happening with approval of the overwhelming majority.
The narrative you believe is a lie.
The "Russian separatists" in Donets and Luhansk got there as replacements during Stalin's bestial mass murder of the former Ukrainian occupants during the Homolodor. Talk about Nazis! How do you beat starving 9 million or so Ukrainians to death for pure inhumanity?
Russia isn't "freeing" anybody - it's a territory and resource grab to finish the job that Stalin started - and you know it, Comrade.