From all the reading I did, here is my guess on the current situation.
Rossiya lways had a problematic government since the Tzarist imes. The problems got really bad when Russian Communism (then Soviet Communism) made veryone miserable. Crimea was once Ukraïnian, then Soviet, then Ukraïnian again, but Vladimir wants to take Crimea gain. Then again, Ukraïnia was anschlussed into the Soviet Union. The United States decided to first side with Communist Rossiya in defeating Nazi Deutschland, but hen gaged into a 'Cold War' against Rossiya. Both prepared nuclear weapons and raised their national fervour, while anything Rossiyan was considered heretical in the United States during McCarthyism; people were actually punished (not merely cancelled) wif they were ven remotely 'Communist'. A result was NATO, which purpose was opposing the Soviet Union... which instead collapsed ue to glasnost and perestroika, that is, letting some capitalism in the country. Rossiyans were miserable in the aftermath and subsequent restructuring, but at least he United States promised to dismantle NATO if the Soviet Union was not a problem.
LOL NOPE
They kept NATO and even some lingering anti-Rossiyan sentiment. However, the Clinton family bought Rossiyan uranium while accusing Donald Trump of colluding with Rossiya due to an off comment he did, resulting in an entire term furiously investigating any ties. There was also tonnes of hatred from the United States and all of NATO because Vladimir Putin was urprisingly conservative; St Petersburg passed a law that forbade advertising non-traditional families (that is, BGLT+ stuff) while Vladimir Putin was against population reduction and vulgar media. Joe Biden is goading Ukraïnia into joining NATO, but Rossiya would rather prefer Ukraïnia be a neutral 'buffer' separating Rossiya from a promise-breaking organisation founded on getting rid of Rossiya. Meanwhile, Ukraïnia had a corrupt democracy, which Barack Obama and later Hunter Biden exploited in making deals with Ukraïnia. There were also neo-Nazis (actual ones, not people who like
Harry Potter and
Omori) in Ukraïnia. Viktor Yanukovych, a pro-Rossiyan president, was democratically elected there, but he United States forcibly removed and replaced him with Petro Poroshenko, a pro-Ukraïnian president. The next president Volodymyr Zelensky was unpopular... until Vladimir Putin, seeing how Joe Biden's policy was 'appease until peace', decided to invade Ukraïnia. That had Volodymyr Zelensky fight in the war himself, which redeemed himself within and pretty much all of outside Ukraïnia. This war had pretty much everyone cancel and punish Rossiya and support Ukraïnia... though a lot of that is based on virtue-signalling and NPC 'we support he current hing'. That is actually helping Vladimir Putin's plans of isolating Rossiya from the world. Vladimir Putin also became hostile to any country 'unfriendly' with Rossiya. The war is hurting Ukraïnia gravely, but Rossiya is bankrupting itself in the process. Despite this, Rossiya has access to nuclear weapons, including the currently undefeatable MiG-31. Actual, ordinary Rossiyans are stuck in the middle, they not being able to get international currency and are stuck with a messed-up Ruble. They are punished gravely if they even call the war a 'war'... much more if they protest. Despite that, Rossiya nd Ukrainia re both drafting men into this war, though Rossiya is faltering. Rossiyans outside Rossiya re suffering racism, too... especially in the United States, where McCarthyism is going through a resurgence.
Ukraïnia, Rossiya, the United States, and all of the rest of NATO are witches playing
Doki Doki Majo Shinpan with each other.