I get your point, but for hundreds of years up until August 24, 1991 Ukraine was part of Russia. If the Russians had known that Western intelligence agencies working with Soros and NATO would be manipulating the newly formed government there... they never would have turned them loose in the first place. So, this has not been about “indigenous peoples” losing their land. It would take a while to go into the details but the possession of Ukraine went back and forth many times until Catherine the Great gave the area a bit of stability by annexing it in 1783.
Ukraine is all about corrupt oligarchs, NATO, beloved President, and corrupt deep state officials all trying to get a piece of the pie at the expense of a bunch of hapless souls in Ukraine who mostly have never had any desire to get caught up in this mess.
Putin wanted all of eastern Europe back under Russian domination. Putin demanded hegemony not only over Ukraine in Dec 2021, but over Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and the Balkan countries by demanding that NATO withdraw from them permanently. Why do you think Finland was suddenly desperate to join NATO even though they had treaties with Russia recognizing their mutual borders?
The demands, spelled out by Moscow in full for the first time, were handed over to the US this week. They include a demand that Nato remove any troops or weapons deployed to countries that entered the alliance after 1997, which would include much of eastern Europe, including Poland, the former Soviet countries of Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, and the Balkan countries.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/17/russia-issues-list-demands-tensions-europe-ukraine-nato