The history of Ukraine since the breakup of the USSR does not support your analysis. Ukraine made good money as a buffer between East and West. For example, they skimmed off the top of Russian gas while making billions from Russia in transit fees for said gas to Central Europe (where I live and work in downstream oil and gas for 30/30+ years). Russia had a rental deal until 2042 for their military bases in Crimea.

It was only when the West forced Ukraine to choose the West and stop their balancing act that Russia took an harder stance on Ukraine's politics. Because....

The history of Ukraine before the breakup of the USSR also does not support your analysis. The West has invaded Russia 3 times. Russia has never invaded the west. 2 of the 3 times Russia was invaded by the west, the invasion came through Ukraine, for reasons of geography.

This is one of the main reasons why Russia would not accept a Ukraine fully embedded in an antagonistic military block like NATO.

Ukraine did NOT want to remove it's Russian yoke. The US funded neo-Nazis and far-right minority extremists to turn political dissent into an armed coup that overthrew the popular and democratically elected president Yanukovych.

Your analysis of what gets countries into NATO is false. It is a smokescreen to cover US bullying, bribing to forward US hegemony.