[giantrobot]

Ukraine turned to NATO because Russia had already invaded them, occupying Crimea and eastern parts of the country. That invasion was completely unjustified as well. It started with Russia getting a big mad Ukraine was acting like a sovereign nation and wanted to sign a free trade agreement with a functional economy instead of them.

Russia's problems are all of their own making. They had no need to invade Ukraine. They did so because Ukraine didn't want to be their puppet state like Belarus. The Russian government wants to treat former SSRs like they're still economic tributaries to Moscow.

[AnimalMuppet]

Russia (Putin) got mad because Ukraine threatened to turn into a functioning democracy. That was a massive threat to Putin because people at home might get ideas - ideas like "maybe that could work here, too".

[bombolo]

A democracy should respect popular vote. That isn't exactly what happened in Crimea though…