Trying to understand the Russia/Ukraine war

Working on having a discussion on understanding the Russia Ukraine conflict. Guest cancelled, but we will try and stay on history and objective analysis and stay away from American politics.

Ukraine Russia timeline
Here is a list of significant events leading up to Invasion of Ukraine by Russia in 2022. I am doing my best to present a fair assessment of Russian and Ukrainian historical perspectives, as well as relevant historical context in other countries. This is my own work I have been putting together to understand both sides.
Ukraine and Russia
1812 Napoleonic Invasion of Russia
1914-1918 World War I invasion by Germany led to defeat of Russia
1917 Romanov dynasty deposed and killed
1917-1922 Lenin holds power in Russia
1918-1922 Red Terror political purges kill estimated 100,000 in Russia
1922-1952 Stalin holds power in Russia
1930-1952 Soviet gulag system under Stalin
1932-1933 Holodomor, the Red Famine in Ukraine Stalin causes between 4 and 10 million deaths.
1937 Order No. 00447 Stalin ordered mass execution of “socially harmful elements”
1939-1941 German Nazi Anschluss, absorption of Czechoslovakia
1939 Molotov Ribbentrop Pact. Agreement between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany
1939 Joint Nazi German-Russian attack on Poland begins World War II
1940 Katyn Massacre Soviet security services murdered 20,000 Polish officers & intellectuals
1941 Operation Barbarossa, the Nazi German invasion of Russia
1941 Pearl Harbor attack brings US into World War II supporting Russia against Germany
Added by stream suggestion, but needs context: Note that some Ukrainian nationals fought against the USSR AND Stalin, and for the German side during WW2.
1944 Warsaw uprising – betrayal of Polish resistance by Stalin
1945 Soviet Union joins the UN as one of five permanent Security Council members
1949-1954 United Nations agreement recognizing Ukrainian nation.
1953 Stalin dies
1956 Hungarian Uprising, put down by Soviet military
1968 Prague Spring and Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia
1986 Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant disaster – soviet era power station
1989 Added by stream suggestion, but needs context: The U.S. Bush commitments to Gorbachev: ? i.e. NATO expansion: The U.S. wouldn't move not one inch towards Russia ....?
1991 Collapse of Soviet Union
1991 Breakup of Yugoslavia
1991 Referendum of Ukrainian independence following collapse of Soviet Union
1991 Russia joins the UN
1991 First Gulf War UN coalition against Iraq, nominal Russian ally
1992 Russia intervention in Transnistria, Moldova and continued occupation by Putin’s Russia
1994 Budapest Agreement guaranteeing Ukrainian borders & removal of nuclear weapons.
“The United States of America, the Russian Federation, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland … taking into account the commitment of Ukraine to eliminate all nuclear weapons from its territory… reaffirm their commitment to Ukraine … to respect the Independence and Sovereignty of the existing borders of Ukraine … to refrain from the threat of or use of force against the territorial or political independence of Ukraine.”
1994-1996 First Chechen War
1997 Friendship Treaty between Yeltsin’s Russia and Ukraine and recognized its state borders
1998-present Putin holds power in Russia
1998 Galina Starovoitova was shot dead in St. Petersburg at the entrance of her apartment.
1998-1999 Kosovo War with NATO intervention against Russian ally Serbia
1999-2009 Second Chechen War
2001 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States
2001 United States withdraws from ABM treaty
2003 Second Gulf War, US invasion of Iraq
2003 Yuri Schekochikhin, liberal Russian parliamentarian, killed by poison.
2003 Sergei Yushenkov, liberal Russian politician, shot dead.
2004 Orange Revolution in Ukraine
2004 Viktor Yushchenko Ukrainian politician, poisoned by possible Putin agents.
2004 Roman Tsepov, Russian political figure, killed by poison.
2005 Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Russian businessman, imprisoned then exiled.
2006 Anna Politkovskaya, Russian journalist and critic of Chechen War, shot dead.
2006 Alexander Litvinenko, Putin critic, poisoned with polonium in London and died.
2008 Invasion of Georgia by Putin’s Russia.
2009 Secretary of State Hillary Clinton presents Russia with a “reset” button.
2009 Stanislav Markelov lawyer & journalist Anastasia Baburova shot and killed in Moscow.
2009 Sergei Magnitsky, witness to Russian corruption, in-custody death by beating.
2011 Libya and killing of Gaddafi by insurgents.
2013 Ukrainian Euromaiden protests, turn to the West under Pres. Petro Poroshenko
2014 Invasion and annexation of Crimea by Putin’s Russia.
2014 Downing of Malaysia Airlines MH-17 over Ukraine killing 298 by pro-Putin allies
2014 Minsk Agreement between Ukraine and Putin’s Russia attempted peace.
2014-2022 Subversion by “Little Green Men” in Ukrainian Donbas region by Putin’s Russia.
2015 Military intervention in Syria by Putin’s Russia.
2015 Boris Nemtsov & Anna Durytska, Russian opposition politician, shot dead near Kremlin.
2017 Nikolay Andrushchenko, Russian Journalist, beaten to death.
2018 autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine created, separating from Moscow control.
2020 Alexei Navalny, Russian opposition leader, Poisoned and imprisoned.
1.19.21 Biden indicates a "minor incursion" by Russia into Ukraine would be acceptable.
2.21.22 Putin recognizes two breakaway regions of Ukraine
2.22.22 Putin unilaterally withdraws from Minsk agreement
2.24.22 Invasion of Ukraine by Putin’s Russia. Millions of Ukrainians flee west.