There are considerable differences between admittedly flawed democracies that become wartime dictatorships (Ukraine) and innate autocracies and dictatorships (Russia under Putin; and Saudi Arabia in general).
Further distinctions are whether such regimes are defensive or status quo in their foreign and security policies (Ukraine and Saudi Arabia) or aggressive and revisionist (Russia under Putin and Iran under the mullahs), and whether dealings with terrorists and bad actors are rare and driven by circumstances (the US) or if they are a routine part of national policy (Russia for many decades and Iran under the mullahs).
I do not mind that you take shots at Swalwell and Walz or China manufacturing, but those are just opportunistic diversions, are they not? I struggle to see any relevance to the discussion.
Ukraine has been a tyrannical hellhole since the illegal coup that was orchestrated in 2014.
The illegal-formed government, which included neo-Nazis, went onto to persecute and kill the ethnic Russian population in Donetsk and Lugansk.
Under Zelensky, Ukraine has banned opposition parties and media outlets, imprisoned opposition leaders, imprisoned and murdered dissents like American Gonzalo Lira and destroyed churches.
I couldn't give a hoot, however, if we hadn't spent $200 billion on Ukraine under the false premise that we were defending freedom and democracy.
Our involvement in Ukraine is solely about our elite getting their grubby hands on the $10 to 12 trillion of resources there.
It's disgusting anyone would defend what the Biden and Obama regimes have done in Ukraine.
NATO turned Ukraine into an offensive regime, one that cut the water off to Crimea and persecuted and killed ethnic Russians in Donetsk and Lugansk.
The goal was for the Western elite to get its hand on the $10 to $12 trillion of resources in Ukraine. Biden, George Soros and BlackRock have made fortunes in Ukraine.