Western propaganda leads people to reflect on the errors of the last war, while exusing the same errors in the current war. Thus Pilger, Chomsky, et al were "so right" about the lies leading us to Libya and Syria and Iraq and Afghanistan but "this time in Ukraine it is different." No, it's not really different.

Ukraine is not black and white.

Note that you've given the Ukrainians a black and white choice - which is actually the black and white choice that lead to this civil war: EU or Russia. Why do they have to choose?

Ukraine is a divided nation. West wants EU, East wants Russia. Many want neutrality. They balanced until the US forced them to choose the West. Then the east seceded and a civil war commenced. Russia annexed Crimea. The fighting hasn’t stopped since 2014.