When Russia invaded Ukraine a few years ago, I was very lib and mostly history-illiterate. I try to be more ML now, but I still don't know a lot about world history. I've heard people saying that, at the dissolution of the Soviet Union, NATO promised they would not move toward Russia, but have since continued to expand eastward. I understand this is threatening to Russia, and I understand why they would want to respond, I'm just not sure why Ukraine specifically was the response? I know we give critical support to Russia in its opposition to the imperial core, so is that the reason? I also know Ukraine is brimming with Nazis in their ranks, but is that alone a reason to invade them? Is my saying Russia invaded Ukraine a misunderstanding in itself? I'm not trying to challenge you guys, I sincerely don't know and want to understand.
Adding on to what the others are saying, I would like to emphasise that western military strategists had also predicted that NATO expansion would cause a disastrous outcome, and they predicted it many years in advance of NATO actually expanding into Ukraine.
Literally, read this article published in 1997 by George kennan in the NYT.
Literally 25 years before the war it was predicted that NATO expansion could be America's worst foreign policy mistake in the post-cold war era.