WWII in Europe ended militarily in April, 1945. So yeah, most people East of the Rhine were liberated by the Soviets who were defeating the Germans for several years at that point all across Eastern and Central Europe.

That is not "denigrating allied forces" since the Soviets were part of the allied forces. If you meant "denigrating the other allied forces" it is not that either, it is a historical fact.

It is not denigrating Ringo Star and George Harrison to state the fact that most of the Beatles music was written by Lennon and McCartney. To state that "everyone contributed equally" would be historically inaccurate (in either case).

Straw man much? I wasn't asked to explain why Soviet losses in Ukraine justify Russia's invasion and the resulting killing of thousands of Ukrainians.

Before 2014 Ukrainians didn't want to join NATO, that is true (2020 I'm not so sure). The difference today is that they are not counting the people of the Donbas or Crimea in those polls. That was the whole issue with Ukraine - it was a very divided country regarding Russia. West Ukraine dislikes Russia, East Ukraine likes Russia.

Empire building is over, eh? Then why didn't NATO disband when its express reason for existance - the Soviet Union - ceased to exist in 1991? At that time there were REAL discussions about a peace dividend. The Russians were weak as hell.

NATO did not disband. NATO expanded. NATO membership requires 2% of GDP be spent on national defense AND NATO weapons interoperability - that means US weapons companies get big contracts. NATO membership also means the US military gets to make bases in the NATO country, and store arms and people at those bases, and the host country has no right to say "No." That increased business for US military contractors as well, but even more important, having US troops stationed permanently in your country and you can't say no by definition makes you a vassal state to the US. Empire indeed.