The bad guy in this is Biden…or perhaps I should say the Biden Crime Family. They put Zelensky in the presidency, even though his sole prior experience was as a lousy TV comedian playing a president in the Ukrainian version of West Wing.
Zelensky ignored the prior agreements and even the referendums from these Russian-ethnic and Russian speaking border areas because he was confident that Biden would send him money (if only because he has the dirt on the Biden Crime Family).
Putin is what he is..an authoritarian president, popular with some but not with others, and with the traditional Russian vision - both pre-Soviet and Post-Soviet- of Russia as a savior nation.
Crazy? Maybe, but it’s a thousand year old craziness if so. You all need to read your Dostoyevsky and learn more about the non-Communist vision of Russia.
The USSR (Communist Russia) was heavily supported by the US press and intellectual community throughout its existence, and these same folks are furious that Reagan brought about its final collapse. It was already collapsing because communism is unsustainable but Reagan gave it the nudge.
I would say that one of the reasons Russia is considered our enemy now is that they will not accept “transgenders,” they are trying to reduce abortions, and they want to restore families.
But mostly this “crisis” is being brought about by the Biden connections. Even many in the EU are beginning to say, “wait, what?” And I don’t think even NATO wants to be dragged into this.
Your history is not accurate. Dems have pretty much ignored Ukraine since 2014. Obama sent blankets and deferred to Merkel then. Did Dems cheer when Trump sent missiles to Ukraine? Nope. Biden ignored Ukraine in 2021 while partnering with Putin to nuke up Iran. Putin took that disinterest as a green light. Until Putin fully invaded Dems have only been interested in Ukraine to hammer on Trump. The idea that the Dems are using Ukraine as some kind of base is just fanciful.