[YZF]

To portray a peaceful Russia as the villain so they can increase their influence in the region? Depending on your viewpoint you can come up with some motivation. And this is also not completely false, ofcourse all these guys are constantly "fighting" for influence in the region. The west prefers to influence via economic means and Russia can't compete in that game so they're changing the game. Perhaps if there was more of a win-win strategy there it might be more successful though hard to say what Russia (given it's political climate) would count as a win.

[wxnx]

Sure, but to what end? The posture of the current government of Ukraine is quite pro-EU, and the people of Ukraine tend to agree (although I suppose one could argue that these surveys are biased?).