It certainly is not about democracy. None of US/NATO wars ever had anything to do with "democracy" or "human rights". Ukraine had "democracy" and elected a Russian leaning government (Yanukovych) in 2010.
But democracy was overthrown by a US funded an US sponsored coup led by right sector fascists in 2014. Ukraine was not a democracy anymore from that point. It became a militarized nation with the fascist backbone of it's military being funded, armed and trained by US/NATO powers to wage war against Russia. Putin made a desperate reckless preemptive move.
