First of all, congratulations on opening your eyes and being willing to listen. That’s not a small step. Please start with cfgaussian’s post, as it’s comprehensive and detailed. But I like to keep these two links handy for my liberal friends who call anything written by non-western people propaganda. They both basically say the same thing, but the first is more historical, and the second is more geopolitical. The second one is written by a former assistant secretary general of the UN who “escaped” the USSR.
https://www.meer.com/en/74782-will-the-ukraine-war-be-the-undoing-for-the-european-union
Personally, I’m entirely on board with the Russian “invasion”, and my support for it is uncritical. The war should never have happened, but now that it’s here, Russia needs to see it through to the end. They were left with no other choice.
I’m honestly not sure what you’re trying to imply in the first paragraph. Russia shouldn’t have mobilised their troops before attacking? They shouldn’t have given Zelensky one last try to make things right? 8 years was too short of a time for negotiations? Zelensky needed to go to war so he could look tough? WTF?
The second paragraph is more clear, but just seems to be liberal talking points. Which is fair, because I posted liberal sources, but the primary complaint seems to be that liberals don’t support the Russian SMO, so I shouldn’t? The war crimes thing is just fluff based on liberal propaganda. I still support the US’ entry into World War 2. Despite them being most enthusiastic committer of war crimes on the planet, committing the most horrifying attack on civilians in human history.