The roots of this conflict go back deepest to the 1200s
With the collapse of the anarchic “loose federation” called Kievan Rus, the Eastern Slavs were split.
With the enthronment of Kublai Khan the Mongol Khaganate was split.
Moscow, the tax-collector for the great Khagans, decided to join the race to recreate Chingiz Khan’s empire - and they won against Kazan, Sibr, etc.
They then decided to “reunite the Rus”, then “All Slavs”, then “All Slavs and all Orthodox” and reconquer Constantinople.
That’s why Tukhachevsky - an ardent anti-Christian, stil dreamt of conquering Constantinople.
That died in the ashes of World War 1.
With the end of the western part of the Tsarist empire, the Russians bid their time and then recreated it in 1945 with their satellite states.
That ended in 1990.
Now the Eastern Slavic states of Belarus and Ukraine were going their own way and the imperialist mindset of Muscowy couldn’t tolerate it.
Putin used this to keep a vice-like grip on power.
With his escalation of the 2nd Chechen war (read about the way the Russians destroyed 3000+ Vainakh nations in the Caucasus) he got a narrative to stay in power. And he’s done that ever since.
Russia would not stop until it’s imperialist mindset ends - and that can only end with a strong defeat - just as Imperial Japan, Imperial (and Nazi) Germany’s mindsets ended with World War II. Or Britain and France’s imperialist mindsets ended with the Suez canal and then the troubles in Malaysia and Indo-China.
This is very sad. All the research that you have done and you have learned nothing. The conclusion you have reached is that we should enter into WWIII with likely billions of dead to teach Russia a lesson. Try to keep in mind that Russia has the world's largest nuclear arsenal. They have thousands and thousands of nuclear war heads of all shapes and sizes, more than the rest of the world combined. That is the reality, and it means that war is not the solution when it comes to teaching them a lesson. The good thing is that the Russian government has been moving in what most would agree is a better direction at least for their own citizens wellbeing in recent times. Do they still commit evil acts... obviously! But our own government has been going in what most currently agree is the wrong direction and our involvement in Ukraine is just one of the more minor examples.
You are a fool and you have reached a foolish conclusion. This is none of our business. We currently have idiots in charge in the United States. And even our officer corps is in a shambles. We are not capable of teaching Russia or anyone else a lesson at this time. Even if we were, the way to do it is not by destroying our economy and our allies’ economies, enriching the Russians, and increasing their status among those who live in countries who contain the vast majority of the world's population.
Russia has not been expanding since the cold war ended. Western intelligence and oligarchs such as Soros and others previously listed have been meddling in the affairs of Ukraine and other countries trying to further weaken Russia. This is not because this has been in our best interests, the best interests of local populations or for any altruistic purpose at all. These characters are diverting massive amounts of money towards themselves and laundering it using the conflicts for cover.
This is what globalists, neocons and others do... we watch one hand while the other hand robs us blind. Many of them hope for a one world government where their opportunities for complete control over everyone else will be even greater. This is something that has some appeal to those who live in 3rd world sh*t holes hoping to “share the wealth”. It is a fruitless endeavor for those of us who live in wealthy countries. All we have accomplished in the case of Ukraine is pushing Russia to the brink of nuclear war.
We should do our best to stay out of any region that has a history of endless wars that go back over a thousand years. Nothing that we have done in Ukraine is helping anyone other than those who are diverting funds intended to kill Russians into their own pockets. This is all stupidity at the most pathetic level.