You could say that the Ukraine-Russia struggle stems all the way back to the days of the Zaporizhian Kozaks led by Iwan Mazepa who fought against Russia's Peter the "Great" in the early 1700s to keep Ukraine free from Russia. Unfortunately, he failed and much of Ukraine later became annexed by the Russian empire. We've been fighting Russia's colonization for a long, long time!
Russia of course blames the war on the US/West - "US coup 2014". "NATO expansion". "Biden wants war". Etc. - It's all baloney.
