This has been an ongoing proxy war since 2014 and the US/EU coup of the duly elected government of Ukraine that spawned the separatist movement in the Donbass and the first, unopposed Russian invasion that resulted in the annexation of Crimea.
NATO expansion has always been the issue. The link below provides a chronological exposition on how this mess started beginning in the 1990s. Context is everything. Russia will never give up Crimea short of being totally defeated.
https://thekennedybeacon.substack.com/p/the-real-history-of-the-war-in-ukraine
So what?
The war can end now by Putin pulling out.
What is untrue about THAT?
You know a lot of Russians are dying to prevent a defense alliance that may or may not have ever been a threat to them. And now Finland and Sweden are in NATO; talk about expansion.
Would an assassination attempt on a country’s leader be considered an act of war? If so, Russia poisoned the Ukrainian president in 2004.
But we’re just bandying words.
The war should stop, could stop and only the Russians can agree to stop it.