I’m not going to attempt to explain the larger historical context but believe me there is one here and it goes back 80 years (US meddling in Ukraine goes back 70 years by contrast, supporting fascist movements against the USSR in Ukraine).

You start from a false premise. That Russia attacked Ukraine in a vacuum, that they were just peacefully minding their own business when suddenly a horde of barbarians came over in a frenzied rage over their prosperous society which they wanted to seize for their own benefits.

The current issues started really in 2004, the orange color revolution by the US, it alarmed Russia but they were still pretty weak and fragmented, Yeltsin was compromised by the CIA and had given away much in the 90s. So Russia did nothing but sit by and continue waving at NATO asking if maybe they could join or if they could become part of an economic bloc with Europe or otherwise join the western order as a big-seat, respected (not junior) partner.

Fast forward to 2014, Maidan, a fascist coup takes place in Ukraine, people are murdered by fascist groups, bad things happen, this is a US backed color revolution of sorts as well. Russia moves to annex Crimea as the fascists are viciously anti-Russian, pro-Nazi collaborators like Bandera/OUN and Crimea has historically been Russian and was only granted to Ukraine under the USSR in the 50s. Crimean citizens support this for the most part (guess what, no independence movement has complete support, there were many in the US at its founding who were loyal to Britain and didn’t want to leave that family). Ukraine complains but can’t do anything about it other than a few isolated terrorist attacks on infrastructure and cutting off water. Tensions flare in the east of Ukraine, in parts of the country that predominantly speak Russian, are Russian culturally and when looking at things like voting patterns, language, etc stand out brightly on maps as clearly delineated and having strong differences from western parts of Ukraine. They do not like new restrictions on their languages (Russian), their culture, etc. Fighting breaks out, fascist paramilitaries start attacking these areas. The residents fight back, they manage to push them out of many areas, a civil war in essence breaks out. Over the following years Ukraine, including fascist paramilitaries that are either part of the armed forces or are soon integrated shell those regions indiscriminately, killing civilians.

Russia tries not once, but twice to arrange with the west peace guarantees called the Minsk agreements, round 1 fails, they come back once it’s fallen through for round 2 and hope the Ukrainians abide by it, respect the Russian people there, their culture, stop the violence and bloodshed, maintain neutrality towards Russia as agreed to in the agreements. Fast forward to 2021, Ukraine has been visibly arming up, the US has been sending them weapons, they are building their armed forces, there are US senators visiting Nazi regiments there and telling them the US stands with them and will support them. 2022, the special operation launches in response to a Ukrainian troop-build-up pointed towards the east which Russia judges to be part of a push to take over the break-away Russian regions by force and give them to the authority of the Nazi battalions among others while suppressing their language, culture, etc. In other words to commit atrocities against Russian peoples. Russia intervenes for humanitarian reasons begrudgingly (if they were war-mongers or wanted land they could have jumped at the opportunity in 2014 to take all of eastern Ukraine). They make a push for Kiev, try to pressure them into talks, Boris Johnson personally goes to Ukraine to stop such talks and continue Ukrainians being fed into the meat grinder.

This is like a neighbor who has been punching you, throwing rocks through your windows for years and suddenly you hit them back and they spin it as you starting a war against them. Many people have had siblings who liked doing this and just as some of them have the favor of their parents, the US’s line here has the favor of those who listen to its media.

No war was started by Russia in 2022, they merely brought into the open and responded with force to a war that had been raging for years after years of failed, dishonest peace attempts with the west and Ukrainians (Angela Merkel and the French president both admit that Minsk was a ruse from the start to give a chance for Ukraine to build a military, they never intended for them to honor it, it was a deception of the Russians).

Sources? I’m not going to compile any for you because I doubt you are good faith and frankly my sources are a mess that I should organize one of these days but haven’t yet on this subject. With some searching determination you can find all this info yourself if you so desire to challenge your beliefs.