Russia Ukraine war, page-3481

"BUT this is about democracy."

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.