I have never argued with you here, and I hope you remember that. I am quoting your post as a lead-in.

There are more tendrils to this situation than a neglected muscadine vine, but I will attempt to simplify.

"The Ukraine" roughly translates to "The Borderland". Whose border? Russia, of course. That area was Russian territory before the USSR. Brezhnev was born in The Ukraine, and Gorbachev was of Ukrainian heritage. As a country, Ukraine didn't exist before 1991. It was a Russian territory, and had been since the 1800's. It had never been a separate state or country prior to then, but was briefly it's own country for about 5 years immediately after WW1, then joined the USSR.

In fact, from about 1400 or so, the area was contested, divided, and ruled by a variety of external powers including the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Kingdom of Poland, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Austrian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Tsardom of Russia.

The US, Great Britain, France, and others committed to Russia around 1990 that NATO would NOT "move 1 inch closer to Russia". Then they did it anyway, by about 1000 miles, then threatened or actually installed missiles near the border. For reference, see "Cuban Missile Crisis".

Ukraine received foreign funding and weapons from NATO countries. Those same countries encouraged Ukraine to move forward with "donated" weapons and push against Russia. The premise was that it was "illegal" to speak Russian in Donbas. Starting in 2014, the Ukrainian government started a civil war to "punish" those who continued to speak Russian, even though that was the only language that they knew. This genocide continued on a low scale until Putin (and the world, but most others were in on it) became aware that thousands of Ukrainian troops were moving to Donbas to "end the uprising" by those who refused/couldn't speak Ukrainian. At that point, the ethnic Russians who occupied Donbas asked for help, and Putin sent troops to stop the genocide that had been occurring since 2014.

This brings us to the latest war for the best farmland in Eastern Europe.

Please know, that just because I know the history and the facts, does NOT mean that I believe that the USA has ANY business being involved in this bullshit. As far as I'm concerned, we need to make a trade deal with whoever wins and become more isolationist in our policies.

By that, I mean not one single dollar leaves our shores as "aid" until every US child is fed, every US veteran is housed and safe, and every needy (read unable to provide for themselves, not unwilling to do the same) US citizen is safe, housed, and fed.

Deport every illegal, and mandate a 20 year waiting period for entry for any individual who came in without permission. Absolutely admit more workers to fill jobs that were vacated, while eliminating welfare and food stamps/SNAP/EBT for any citizen unwilling to work. If you can't find a job, your county can issue you a trash grabber and a box of bags every morning.

I worked my entire life, and work continues to find me even in retirement. Shouldn't be that hard for these leaches to figure out how to be productive.

I went off topic a bit at the end, but I do hope this helps someone who didn't know the history of the region.