What amazes me is how many people ignore the declaration Putin himself wrote last year about Ukraine. He said Ukraine was basicay a fake country, with no history, and should be part of Russia.That's what this war is about. NATO is relevant only as to the timing, because Putin knew that he couldn't invade Ukraine once it became a member of NATO.
All those Russia apologists out there talk about Russia's fear of being invaded from the west, etc.. That's a bunch of crap as well - no nation has invaded a nuclear armed country since nukes were invented, and for obvious reasons. Putin know full well that NATO was never going to invade Russia. He just used that as propaganda to justify his military adventurism.
Yes, of course they are just excuses. But most people don’t think rationally, they think emotionally. They come up with the opinion they like, and then find a way to rationalize it afterwards. This is as true for the majority of conservatives as it is for the majority of lefties, just with lefties that majority is almost a complete and total majority.
So people are ignoring that Russia’s justifications are just excuses because it is convenient for them to ignore it. They need rationalizations to justify their position, Russia is happy to provide those rationalizations for them so they don’t have to come up with them on their own, and as long as they don’t allow themselves to stop and think critically, they’ll continue on like that until reality slaps them in the face a few more times.