You are talking about Russia when I am talking about the millions of ethnic Russians WITHIN Ukraine and their sentiments prior to 2014 and post 2014 (Crimean annexation and post Euromaidan which began in 2013).
All I am saying is that I find it very hard to believe that majority-Russian areas such as Crimea and Donbas will ever return to Kiev. Only by force will that happen. Has Ukraine not banned the public use of Russian language, banned all pro-Russian parties and practically done everything to alienate pro-Russian Ukrainian citizens? They were doing all that long before Russia's invasion of Ukraine last year. There was great unrest post-Euromaidan between pro-Russia Ukrainians (mostly ethnic Russians) and Ukrainians who were anti-Russia. This occurred before the Crimean annexation. I posted a link to the riots in Odessa where pro-Russian Ukrainian citizens were burned alive in the local trade union house with the local police encouraging this behavior and looking passively.
Those narratives and stories were never told in the Western media. Or the 8 + years of shelling in Donbas from 2014 until the Russian invasion last year.
All this is without even mentioning political theories and how world powers/regional powers are and have been acting in their immediate neighborhood.
No need to explain how the US has acted within their neighborhood in cases of countries (freely or not freely) electing regimes/politicians who are not pro-USA. Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, invasion of Grenada etc. So no wonder that most of the non-Western world don't buy the Western/US narrative of evil bad Russia and saintly West that never attacks any country.
We all remember Iraq and the idiotic lies and the illegal invasion of that country, the destruction, casualties, toppling of their regime etc.
Another historical fact, Ukraine and Ukrainians were collaborators of Nazi Germany, committed ethnic genocide against the Polish population in modern-day Western Ukraine (back then Polish territory),
en.wikipedia.org
Some of the worst concentration camp guards were Ukrainians, (you in the US had one hiding not long ago, Demanjuk something), entire SS brigades were made up by Ukrainians,
en.wikipedia.org
many of them being celebrated to this day out in the open with tactic Ukrainian governmental support, Azov Battalion, Ukraine being one of the most corrupt nations, similarly ruled/dominated by oligarchs like Russia (read up on who helped elect Zelenskij) etc.
Ukraine is a fake nation state created by Stalin/USSR. It currently occupies historical Russian, Polish and Hungarian territory.
Almost all of Eastern/Southern Ukraine was built/founded by the Russian empire. This entire region is not called Novorossiya (New Russia) by a coincidence.
en.wikipedia.org
The only reason why the US/EU gives a flying **** about Ukraine is due to Russia being the "evil guys" and your governments/regimes/elites obsession about weakening every possible US adversary that does not toe the US line whether it be Russia or China or anyone else. It is not about human rights, caring about some 10.000 dead civilian Ukrainians or what not. If that was the case we would not have seen this occurring for decades upon decades with no pause:
So you will fight Russia until the last Ukrainian but Russia is not your Cuba, Grenada, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran and whatever small/weak states in comparison.
Where was the talk of legality when this
occurred?
Is it legal to invade sovereign nations based on lies, topple said states legal UN-recognized government etc.?
Is it legal to suddenly ban Russian language, ban pro-Russian political parties etc.?
BTW it is not illegal for territories in a given state to succeed by democratic means as seen with the Crimea referendum where the overwhelming majority of Crimeans (who are ethnic Russians in their vast majority) voted to join Russia once again. This all occurred peacefully BTW. Said Crimea was given to the USSR province (Ukraine) by an Ukrainian (Kruschev) without consent much the same way Ukraine's modern-day borders were drawn by Stalin/USSR and contain historically Polish, Hungarian and Russian lands.