Think of a teenager, or a young adult who has no interest in politics. All they've ever heard is that Russia and Putin are evil. If you had an opportunity to explain to them why the war is happening - what would you say?
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First, they would need to understand that the current war in Ukraine/Russia is a leftover, unresolved land dispute matter from the breakup of the former Soviet Union during the 1990's.
From there, you can explain how the former dictator of the Soviet Union, Ukrainian born Nikita Khrushchev, reformed the state boundary between the nations of Soviet Russia, and Soviet Ukraine. Khrushchev took the prosperous western lands of Russia, and placed it within the border of eastern Ukraine, thus placing many Russian peoples within the nation of Ukraine- something they have never been happy about.
Many years after the fall of the USSR, the Russian people living in those lands exercised their right to vote, and voted to leave Ukraine, and to put their lands back into Russian territory. The resolution was legal, and supported by the former president of Ukraine. But, some Ukrainians were not happy about losing the prosperous territory that had been gifted to them by Nikita Khrushchev, so they staged a coup, and overthrew their democratically elected president. A move that 0bama, and the NATO nations all pretended was not an issue to concern themselves with. They sat on their asses while the democratic govt. of Ukraine was overthrown.
Fast-forward>> Russians in Ukraine resisted the overthrow, and demanded that the new Ukrainian govt. honor their vote to leave Ukraine- Ukraine govt. refused, sent in storm troopers to put those Russian people in line. Fighting, killing, etc. went on for several years, while Russian citizens living in Ukraine begged Russia to come in and protect them from Ukrainian storm troopers. Eventually Russia sent their army into Ukraine to do just that. --we are here--
On the other side, NATO wants to build military (missile) bases (big $$$ from US taxpayers) in eastern Ukraine, which is a violation of post Soviet Union treaties with Russia, and antagonizes Russia further. But that's a big reason for NATO's motive for supporting Ukraine, it's all about MIC scooping up all that phat US tax $ they can get.
Great! Thank you.