“ Ukraine has every right to defend itself and expel the invaders”
Of course they have that RIGHT. The question of the last several months has been, is Ukrainian policy vis a vis Russia based on a false belief that, if it comes to war, that the US will ensure that the outcome for Ukraine is not catastrophic.
Preventing this war was a lot easier for Ukraine than fighting it is going to end up.
Russia started this war, not Ukraine. If the cause were truly only about the expansion of NATO, then Russia should accept Ukraine's declaration that they are no longer interested, sign a treaty guaranteeing neutrality, declare victory and go home.
We would be fools to accept Russia's justifications that this was about NATO expansion. Russia has never reconciled itself with Ukrainian independence and the loss of empire. The complaints about NATO expansion, while real, were also a mask for Russia's long standing desires to grab land and reassert its control over Ukraine. Russia was going to attack Ukraine regardless of what they did. The real cause for this war was Biden's weakness, not anything that Ukraine did.