I’ve been following the issues in Ukraine fairly closely especially, as a professional interest, since Putin invoked the possibility of canned sunshine (a delightful phrasing I stole from HERE).
I stumbled across another YouTube video (HERE) that focuses more on recent history and draws the implications from the geography of Eastern Europe, and Russia’s preoccupation with buffers between NATO states and itself.
The other interesting thing is the connection that Ukraine is basically a replay of the invasion of Georgia (the nation, not the State) in 2008. Basically, Georgia had two breakaway provinces (Abkhazia and South Ossetia) with large Russian populations. They were recognized (and occupied) by Russia who then launched an invasion on the pretext of protecting the Russian population and reintegrated Georgia as a buffer state.
Of course, the US was somewhat distracted by ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and Georgia was unrelated to NATO and Europe. Another complication is that Ukraine had inherited a large nuclear stockpile when the USSR dissolved and was persuaded to give them up and was assured by Bill Clinton that the US would “assure” it’s integrity.