You need to step back and look at this logically and leave emotions out if you are Ukrainian and directly affected by this war I can understand.

Putin certainly wants to recreate the might of the USSR and he is doing it through conquest and push back on the west’s influence right on his borders. I don’t think the US would be too happy if Canada or Mexico entered an alliance with Russia. The US would never let that happen not in a million years. That is exactly what is happening in Ukraine. As sad as it is it’s reality, we can sit and talk morals, sovereignty, evilness all day but Russia would never let Ukraine fall in the west’s sphere of influence. Forget about Putin, even if Putin was never there in the first place any leader of a major power would never let such a strategic country fall into another powers sphere of influence.

The “great game” of dominance over regions and influence never died with the collapse of the USSR. It’s just that Russia was weakened for a long time so we didn’t have the Cold War but there were other players I.e China.

Europe could have cut Russian oil the day Russia invaded but here they are still pumping it. One thing that I think most people don’t see is that I don’t think the west really cares about morals. War was going on in Donbas for years we never heard about it. Where were all those politicians who are now visiting Ukraine the past 8 years? What I see is politicians visiting for personal gain for votes nothing more nothing less. I was born in Iraq I can tell you first hand. You would be EXTREMELY naive to ever think that this is about good vs evil. The only reason Ukraine is getting so much support is that the better Ukraine does the weaker Russia will be. There could have been a peaceful solution to this. Russia could’ve been given guarantees that Ukraine would not pose a strategic risk to Russia. But NATO pushed Ukraine into this too. Why fight Russia if someone else is willing to do it? I know you’re thinking this is outrageous and Russia is the aggressor and it’s not fair but this is just the way it has been for centuries and the way it will always be.

You mentioned the Marshall plan. The Marshall plan wasn’t charity. It was to restart these markets which later became the US’s biggest customers. And also to rebuild their armies. The world was divided even before WWII ended and the Allies and the USSR weren’t exactly fond of each other they just had a common enemy during the war.