Read this.
Some facts (as I understand them) that everyone should be aware of:
- The US played a significant role in a rebellion/coup in Ukraine, in 2014, and then spent 8 years sending lethal arms to the post-coup government.
- Neo-Nazi groups played a bloody role in the rebellion, and the governments that have been in power in Ukraine since then, have been appeasing/rewarding/praising those groups, allowing them to thrive and assist in their war on ethnic Russian separatists who opposed the coup. The previous (also NATO-backed/armed) President of Ukraine - Poroshenko - described the neo-Nazis as “our best warriors”, and they were incorporated into the National Guard.
- The post-2014 governments have been trying to denigrate the Russian language (in a country with many millions who have Russian as their first language).
- The governments have failed to implement the Minsk Agreement that was meant to guarantee peace, and semi-autonomy, to the area in eastern Ukraine where the separatists are. Approx 14,000 people have died in fighting, 80% on the separatist side, including many civilians/children.
- NATO promised Russia 30 years ago that there would be no eastward expansion. They lied. It has expanded ever since, despite western experts regularly saying that this is a very bad idea as Russia will understandably be threatened by it. (NATO was formed after WW2 specifically for western powers to unite against Russia. Early on in his rule, Putin suggested that Russia become a member, but that was rejected. Today, NATO's military doctrine specifically refers to Russia as an adversary).
- NATO has proven itself to be an aggressive military alliance. (E.g. the war on Yugoslavia, e.g. the war on Libya). The west has been waging covert/overt wars around the world since WW2, (to expand the interests of western corporations/banks/oligarchs. Sorry, I mean ‘to spread democracy’). The US has military bases encircling Russia, in numerous countries.
- The US has pulled out of weapons treaties with Russia: e.g. the Anti-Ballistic Missle Treaty in 2002, and the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in 2020.
- A few days before Russia invaded Ukraine, the Ukrainian president Zelensky suggested that his country would pursue nuclear weapons.
You can oppose Putin’s invasion of Ukraine but still see that the above is all extremely important information that everyone should be made aware of. Western media has been completely omitting most of it. We would be made very aware if Ukraine was Mexico, Russia was the US, and NATO was Russia/China.