The new government was vehemently anti-Russian and pro-American and pro-NATO. Russia did not commit a full blown invasion, it annexed a part of the country tha

The new government was vehemently anti-Russian and pro-American and pro-NATO. Russia did not commit a full blown invasion, it annexed a part of the country that had a crucial naval port to use which they had an agreement with the previous government and where the population of that area of the country is predominantly ethnic Russians who self-identify as Russian and didn't support the new anti-Russian government. The only reason that historically Russian land was given to Ukraine in the 1954 transfer of Crimea was due to Khrushev's blunder. Don't try to pull wool over anyone's eyes here with claims that it was just an innocent change of power. In world politics you can't do things willy-nilly. Ukraine has threatened Russia by going against it, cutting off previous agreements and trying to ally itself with Russia's enemies and Russia did what it had to do stop it in its tracks. And for your information, Ukrainian citizens are worse off than they were before, whilst the new anti-Russian elite of Ukraine is busy getting rich and robbing the country. But hey, at least they're no longer associated with Russia, right? Because EU and the US cared so much about them in the first place and totally not trying to destabilise Russia's southern border.