People stupidly think Ukraine is an “independent country.” It never was, and it isn't now. It bounced from long-term Russian territory split with other empires like Hungary to Poland, to in the last century - a Soviet territory, to Russian to American, back to Russian and then American again. In 2014, the US deep state simply kicked out corrupt Russian oligarchs and replaced them with its own. By that definition, the US is Chinese then.
Please stop with the "stupid" excuses.
The people of Ukraine declared independence in 1991, and the corrupt oligarchs that have come along since don't negate the independence of the 44 million Ukrainian people.
The same thing goes with the year 1776 and the 330 million people of the U.S.