[Normille]

  >I am admittedly not even close to an expert to what's going on over there...

Don't let that stop you from weighing in with your opinions. It doesn't deter the other eleventy billion people pontificating about this crisis in somewhere they hadn't heard of til a fortnight ago.

[daenz]

Instead of snark, could you provide something constructive? I'm trying to get a better understanding of the relationship, and from my research, Russian leaders and citizens appear to be quite fond of Ukrainian people. Is this not accurate?

[panarky]

If Russia is so fond of Ukrainian people why would they drop cluster bombs in civilian areas and fire rockets at residential buildings?

[daenz]

What a loaded question. Are you asserting that Russia hates the Ukrainian people, and is invading because they want them destroyed?

[mickotron]

Do you deny those things occurred? Way to put up an insta-Strawman. Instead, try to address what the person actually said and meant, in good faith.

[Normille]

You [and the vast majority of other people] could start by at least seeking out the other side of the story and not unquestioningly swallowing this ridiculous American over-simplification of every global crisis into "We're the good guys and they're the bad guys."

The Russians have legitimate fears about the encroachment of NATO and American weaponry right onto their doorstep. You might want to look up a historical event called 'The Cuban Missile Crisis' to see how the US has acted in the past, in a similar situation [see also Nicaragua, Venezuela, etc]

The Russians believe that a democratically elected and pro-Russian government in Ukraine was over-thrown by a US engineered coup [Euro Maidan] and replaced by a fiercely right-wing anti-Russian regime, which is hell-bent on joining NATO and thus having American missiles stationed there [and Ukraine is a lot closer to Russia than Cuba is to America]

The Russians also say their citizens in the two breakaway regions are being genocided. Although that is, at best, an exaggeration used to justify the invasion.

Now, before you accuse me of being a Russian supporter or apologist, I'm not. I'm as outraged by this invasion as anyone else. But to simply pretend that it's all happened because evil mad dictator Putin has suddenly turned into Adolf Hitler reincarnated, while Uncle Sam has been innocently sitting on the sidelines, polishing his halo, is to bring a play school level of critical thought process to bear on the situation.