For anyone who in good faith wants to better understand the deep background of Russian invasion in Ukraine, this is *the* resource:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLh9mgdi4rNewfxO7LhBoz_1Mx1MaO6sw_
It's truly captivating, and dispels a bunch of myths, half-truths, and pieces of disinformation around Ukraine and the war, by means of a deep-dive into the history.
I linked to this a bunch of times in the responses to responses below, but it is too important and too valuable to linger in the depths.