@TonusOH: the Russia-Ukraine conflict is a bit longer than 3 years, about a year before the collapse of the Soviet Union, they already wanted to join NATO/EU.
After the collapse, they became mostly independent and annexed Crimea and the Donbas during the formation of what was going to be a much smaller Russia.
In 1994 the (at that point attempting to be independent) Republic of Crimea chose a pro-Russian president, Ukraine and Russia both pushes for Crimea to not be independent, hoping they will get the (now oil/gas rich) territory. Ukraine wins this three-way tug of war with pressure from the US, in return Clinton convinced them the US was going to guarantee their security if they dismantled their nuclear weapons. But the regions remained effectively independent, having their own military and government.
Things remain rocky but stable between the two during the Bush presidency until 2009, when Obama gives assurances to Medvedev of non-interference in return for cheap Russian oil and subsequently a corrupt pro-Russian president gets elected in Ukraine which many believe through CIA interference, this doesn’t last long as Ukrainians protest, the government collapses and both Donbas and Crimea sees the opportunity for an official referendum for independence, which Ukraine doesn’t like.
Obama refuses to support Crimean/Donbas independence, Ukrainian forces attempt to suppress the ‘rebellion’ and Russia steps in, thousands of Ukrainian forces are sent in and immediately they defect to the local government, most of the political leadership in the regions wants to become a Russian protectorate, they continue fighting for years though which eventually leads to the point that Russia gains enough of a foothold and pushes Ukraine completely out of the Donbas which was 3 years ago when they finally invaded Ukraine proper as they felt there would be no pushback from Biden to take a little more, and got all the way to Kyiv.
The lines of this conflict were drawn a long time ago, the current conflict has been ‘hot’ for a decade now, the only thing that changes is how much the US and Russia wants to push their puppets around. Clinton, Obama and Biden needed oil to fund their environmental policies of no-drilling and Russia is a giant gas station with a country attached to it.
That’s why this whole situation is so schizophrenic, the US and Europe if it doesn’t drill its own oil, needs to fund both sides which in return provides the riches to both sides to be more belligerent towards each other despite during all these conflicts, they have to rely on each other to deliver the product that provides each other’s war funding from the US/Europe.
