Russia - threadbanned users in OP

Well, the western narrative is that Russia has no legitimate national interests or concerns that should be respected by it's neighbours, or indeed by the US. Any concerns it has are groundless. Any assertive foreign policy aims it has are malicious. And as you say, the western aim is to effect regime change in Russia as if it was Nicaragua or Libya.

We can disagree with the aims of Putin, but let us not pretend that a Western backed leader parachuted in by Washington to rule Russia in the aftermath of the assassination of Putin would be no more legitimate than a puppet Ukrainian government installed by the Kremlin. The Russians do not want to see a new Yelstin.

I don't think anyone on here on the the west would want to see a puppet government in Russia, they just would prefer a democratically elected one.

Puppet governments are prone to revolutions and cause a resentment to those that installed them.

It always seems dictators cause more wars/suffering than democratically elected governments.

Very hard for the west to drop all sanctions while Crimea is still illegally in control of Russia. It would be akin to the west accepting Russia's claim to it.

High probability the people of Donbas & Luhansk won't want to be under Russian control either after this invasion.

I don't think that follows. Putin has launched two aggressive wars. Georgia in 2008. Ukraine 2014-2022. Georgia was short and sharp. We'll see how Ukraine pans out. But they both have clear cut objectives to assert easily understood hard interests. How many wars has the democratic west waged in that time? Often for vague ideology, ill-defined and sometimes conflicting or naïve aims like securing female education in Afghanistan. "Forever wars".

I made the point earlier that democratic countries are more..."emotional" in their dealings. Concessions to avoid the 2022 Ukrainian war were impossible not because it didn't make sense but because democratic nations could not abide the idea of conceding anything to Putin or Russia. They were evil, and you never concede to evil. So instead we prefer war to concessions.

Authoritarian regimes can afford to be more cold blooded in their dealings.

I don't think any of that has any relation to my reply to your OP saying if Putin was to be replaced, that the west would prefer a democratically elected government over a puppet one.

You mention conceding anything to Putin. A sovereign state should be under no obligation to concede any of their sovereignty to any other country (democratically elected or a dictator) I don't care what Russia's or Putin's concerns are, Ukraine as a sovereign country can do what she likes.

It's not a matter of good vs evil, a sovereign state is a sovereign state, end off.

"When will the hairdressers in Kyiv open?"

Dont forget the weddings....

I'm sure you can interchange "Russian" with "English" and Crimea with Northern Ireland and it would be similar. let's see:

It's been "British" since the ~1169 when it was taken from the Irish. The majority of people there identify as British. English the official language. It's far more English than it ever was Irish.

An yet here we are in 2022 and the north is at peace and has an option to stay as they are or join a united Ireland. Doesn't seem to be any rush and neither Ireland nor the UK are threatening war for the north. Just letting the north choose what they want, when they want.

Ti's a little different than invading Crimea and having a sham referendum.

If (according to Russia) the west have committed an act of war, why haven't Russian attacked: EU/UK/USA/Australia/Switzerland/New Zealand/Singapore/Taiwan/Japan.

Maybe those sovereign states can decide which countries they do business with and which countries they allow planes to fly over and land in etc....

Just because you have a country in this world, doesn't mean you get to be treated the same as others. Especially not when you illegally wage a war on a peaceful neighbour.

The amount of military equipment the Russians are losing is unreal - they must have thought this would be a walkover and finding out Afghanistan has nothing on Ukrainians

Nobodies history in the Crimea is a "proud one".

"We" have been facilitating the current Russian situation for 20 years. Most recently with Trump's close association with Putin.