Your analysis is on point, except for one thing: >Putin invaded Ukraine because he believed in a false story that Ukrainians wanted to be Little-Russians fed

Your analysis is on point, except for one thing: >Putin invaded Ukraine because he believed in a false story that Ukrainians wanted to be Little-Russians fed to him by FSB agents (KGB successor). I don't think he really believed in an real enthusiasm, but rather passiveness and complacency that characterized "Great-Russians" under his regime. >But Russian speaking Ukrainians sympathetic to Russia never asked for their whole lives to be upended and to be bombed by Russia into oblivion. That's a giant point not even touched once by trolls that love to share 2012 Ukraine election results. There's massive difference between believing that Ukraine needs to ally with Russia, there are cultural ties and similar points, and wishing for literal invasion of your country by foreign empire.