while a fascist Ukraine continue to shell the civilian population of the Donbas
This is what I keep coming back to in every argument about this online and IRL. Russia's invasion wasn't the start of the war, it was an escalation of an ongoing conflict - and yes it fucking sucks that the war got escalated in this way, but it's patently false to say that there wasn't an attempt to end it peacefully. Minsk 2 would have reintegrated Donbas with Ukraine with some protections for its minority population, but Ukraine didn't even implement the first step. Zelensky was elected on a platform of ending the war, but when he tried Azov told him they would rather coup his government than stand down. At some point when negotiations are broken down the only thing any organization has left to do is resort to violence, which the Russian state did when it felt threatened enough by NATO (which if you'll recall spent months warmongering prior to the invasion start) to justify the risk.
This is what I keep coming back to in every argument about this online and IRL. Russia's invasion wasn't the start of the war, it was an escalation of an ongoing conflict - and yes it fucking sucks that the war got escalated in this way, but it's patently false to say that there wasn't an attempt to end it peacefully. Minsk 2 would have reintegrated Donbas with Ukraine with some protections for its minority population, but Ukraine didn't even implement the first step. Zelensky was elected on a platform of ending the war, but when he tried Azov told him they would rather coup his government than stand down. At some point when negotiations are broken down the only thing any organization has left to do is resort to violence, which the Russian state did when it felt threatened enough by NATO (which if you'll recall spent months warmongering prior to the invasion start) to justify the risk.