I think it is a gross misconception. To bring things into perspective Ukraine inherited from USSR a military loosely equal to modern US military in terms of manpower and the number of assets, not counting warships. Its economy was about 30% of USSR which was only second to US and that alone made Ukraine in top ten nations economically.
The problem is that the looting started immediately after independence and it began to shrink at unprecedented scale reducing to about African status in just a few years.
Looting involved military assets and technology leading to proliferation of very sensitive tech which went to Iran, China and North Korea.
To think whatever ends justify allowing such country to maintain control over 4000 nukes and delivery systems is a pure insanity.
Good argument for Russia reabsorbing Ukraine - not responsible enough to be independent!