“The time for the United States to take a principled stand on Ukraine was Feb. 2014 after the democratically elected government was overthrown in a coup. The US should have made the Ukie opposition live up to the agreement they had just signed to hold early elections instead of just letting the fascists take over the country.”
That coup was sponsored and engineered by the US and NATO.
Why would they then hold their new fascist government to some expeditious agreement with a losing party?
Russia is taking back what was stolen from them.
The west can wrap a bunch of emotioonal words around it like democracy, liberty, freedom etc. but that’s a big pile of bullshit. That was never going to be in Ukraine. Not in 100 years.
The west just wanted to bring those substantial resources into it’s control orbit and present a politicak lever into the weak underbelly of Russia.
They even succeeded for a little while.
But Russia perceived this as an existential threat and responded militarily.
Great power politics is back.
The US, Russia...and perhaps an emerging China...now have Spheres of Influence. Extended imperial possessions.
Any of those possessions could be traded for another on a moments notice.
I would like to believe the US wasn't directly involved, but you're probably right. Hard to believe they'd pull that crap in Europe.