If I looked around for someone to blame for the war in the Ukraine, of course
I'd blame Russia. But I'd also blame the Ukraine government and it's citizens also. They need to look in the mirror. After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the 'Cold War' Russia was only a shadow of itself, militarily speaking. Russia was isolated and weak.
When Russia claimed the 'Soviet Union' as it's sphere of power,
it claimed all the 'Warsaw Pact' nations as fighting allies. But on the collapse of the Soviet Union, these allies not only turned their backs on Russia,
each of them joined NATO. And so did Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania.
The Ukraine had 30 years of Russian weakness to join NATO, but it didn't. Ukraine was afraid of offending Russia. And now Ukraine is paying a heavy price.
The 14 Former Soviet and Soviet-aligned Republics That Joined NATO After the Cold War (click on link)
The 14 Former Soviet and Soviet-aligned Republics That Joined NATO After the Cold War – Page 2 – 24/7 Wall St. (247wallst.com)
And of course now, Sweden and Finland are getting ready to joing NATO. Despite all it's sabre rattling, Russia is weak and desperately afraid of NATO. That is one of the reasons that it is trying to gain control of Ukraine.