Except for the fact that when Ukraine separated from the Soviet Union they would have been the third largest nuclear power in the world. So they signed the Budapest memorandum in 1994 that in exchange for giving up their nuclear weapons the US, UK and Russia would guarantee their security.
Back then there was no talk about Ukraine joining NATO.
Even before Putin became president he was talking about resurrecting the old Soviet Union
and after he became president he was obsessed with getting back Ukraine into the fold.
So all this bullcrap about fearing that Ukraine was full of Nazi’s and that they would join NATO is false.
It was Russia that first broke the treaty and it was Russia that invaded Ukraine under false pretext and it was the UK and the US who didn’t hold up their end of the bargain by not defending Ukraine when Russia invaded them.
So get the record straight and stop defending Putin and his murderous regime !