Thanks for your response, but it doesn't address the issue. If Russia felt that Ukraine in NATO was an existential threat, they were going to eventually go to war to stop that existential threat from being realized. I don't like it. I may not agree with Russia's point of view, but my point of view isn't important in this discussion.

Russia's point of view is the important one, and they have made it clear since the 1990 (Yeltsin) that NATO expansion was a problem. Putin made it VERY clear in 2008. So this war was not hard to predict.