After doing a simple search into how we got to this point, I honestly don’t blame Putin for doing this.
He asked multiple times including 2008 and last year for assurances that Ukraine isn’t park of NATO. If Ukraine was part of NATO, Russia would be a sitting duck in the event they had beef with a NATO member. Ukraine provided a neutral buffer between them and the west. This could’ve been resolved by making Russia promise not to invade Ukraine if they were kept out of NATO.
But NATO blew Russia off so they took Crimea. This was the next step. The U.S. and NATO dropped the ball on this because they didn’t think Putin would take it this far even though history proved otherwise.
And once again this is part of Obama’s legacy because he dropped the ball first.