Ukraine launched a military operation to unify the country, as Russia and many other countries have done before. Countries have the implicit right to prevent dissolution of their borders, or they can't truly be called states. The Russians understood this when they engaged in a large, protracted struggle to reintegrate Chechnya.

Overt Russian support for the separatists is the main reason why these regions are so isolated, poor, and dependent on Russian resources today. Russia needs to accept the blame for the thousands of civilian deaths in a conflict they started. Without Russian interference, there would only be united Ukraine.

The path to WW3 continues accelerating:

ASB News / MILITARY〽@ASBMilitary·51s
“Russia will withdraw troops from Ukraine after the operation is complete. Zelensky will face a tribunal.” — Russian official.

The Eurasianist ☦@Russ_Warrior·53s
#Russia will fully break diplomatic relations with all countries that are going to sanction president #Putin or members of the Russian govt.

This is actually making a lot of sense now.

Still 100% not russia's fault, right? just checking.

Please keep spewing delusional nonsense. The US started the war in Ukraine by backing a coup there in the first place. The fact there is a Ukraine crisis at all is the direct result of US meddling in the 2014 Maidan coup.

Furthermore, the Ukrainian army is filled to the brim with criminals who massacred thousands of people and would have massacred thousands more if they were allowed to go on the offensive against Donbass.

They were waging a war of genocide and ethnic cleansing against the people of Donbass, it had absolutely nothing to do with unification.

Russia is doing God's work. Too bad that once the Nazi's are gone, it will take decades longer to undo the massive web of lies and propaganda that is tearing humanity apart at this time.

No, it's Obama's for backing a coup in Ukraine 8 years ago that led to this crisis.

I said it before and I said it again.

OBAMA MUST STAND TRIAL FOR SUPPORTING NEO-NAZI CRIMINALS IN UKRAINE AND TRIGGERING THIS CRISIS THAT IS NOW PUSHING THE WORLD TO WW3!!

Yeah, and there are no trees in a forest.

LOL. You know what, maybe humanity needs ww3 so it can finally wake the fuck up.

This world desperately needs a future where terroristic empires aren't allowed to do shit like back Nazi's in Ukraine and then brainwash millions of people into literally thinking "there are no Nazi's in Ukraine!"

It's utter insanity. Honestly, at this point.. fuck it. Maybe we need a nuclear war to finally break us all out of our comfort zones and be forced to accept the truth about ourselves.

What's the line between protecting borders and irredentism?
How can it be anything but arbitrary geopolitical views. The democratically elected Ukrainian government was overthrown in 2014. Russia annexed Crimea and occupied Donestk and Lutansk, who remained in a state of frozen conflict with western Ukraine and completely outside their jurisdiction. And yet they are all former territories of the Soviet Union only 30ish years ago. Does Russia have a legitimate right to thwart NATO expansion and CIA seized countries in their back yard? Do the Crimeans have a legitimate claim to self-governance when their democracy vanished overnight? Should Putin be able to reassemble the Soviet Union's empire one territory at a time?

It all boils down to labels put on arbitrary lines on maps, with one entity making one claim and another contradicting it. And who's claim wins out in the end? Might makes right. Russia was willing to take by force what the West won by politics, and was unwilling to defend. There are no implicit rights between nations, no grand schema of liberty. There are formal agreements on the relations of sovereign nations that last only up until those claims are put to the test, just like any insincere conviction. And whenever a world power invades a shithole, they can dress it up in the pretenses of necessity, of provocation, of self-defense, of hunting WMDs or repulsing NATO expansion.

Do you guys reckon there will be a significant armed resistance after the government falls

tl;dr Ukraine = territory in Risk you leave 1 soldier in.