When it comes to proxy war or whatever. Ukrainians voted, elected a leader who promised them EU etc (I think he got around 70% of votes). Invading such a country simply means, "we will take over you and forcefully try to change each of your opinions". I believe this is working exactly the other way around so far. If western countries wanted to assimilate Ukraine from Russia, they could not do it so quickly. But thanks to Putin and all the war crimes, hate towards Russia has reached to another level in Ukraine. Invade it all if you can, question is, how will you control all those 40 millions of people hating you?
It's hard to say that because Ukraine before Maidan was a divided society. West and north regions are Pro-EU and South and east regions are Pro-Russia. I'll show you two maps:
First: Yellow is the Pro-EU party and Blue is the Pro-Russia party in the elections before Maidan
Second: Linguistic map of Ukraine
In 2014 there was a coup against the pro-Russian elected president and since then the Russian-speaking population had fewer rights than before. AFAIK, even pro-Russian regions voted in favor of Zelensky because he promised peace and they trusted that Russian man who speaks fluently Russian and was born and raised in a Russian-speaking city (Krivoi Rog). Being in the EU isn't the main reason Zelensky was elected because we all know that is hard for Ukraine to get there. Let's be honest, Ukraine was the poorest country and the most corrupt country in Europe since the breakup of the Soviet Union. Idk why that happened. Even Belarus is doing way better if you compare both. EU won't ever accept them (they don't even accept Turkey)... Ukraine in the EU could be a ruin for the EU. BTW, Ukraine had a pro-EU president (I think in 2005-2010) even before Maidan and that didn't go well. There wasn't a reason to make a coup against the pro-Russian elected president.
Of course, invading Ukraine was bad. Even some Russian-speaking population now hates speaking Russian. That's why I think the Russians are going after the Russian-speaking regions and cities like Kherson, Odessa, Kharkov, etc because it's easier to handle for them. Maybe you wonder why those regions and Dombass and Crimea speak Russian. Well, it's because they are Russian and those cities were founded by Russians. How did they get within the Ukrainian borders? Ask Lenin and Bolcheviques! IMO, the Minsk agreement was a win-win for all parties... Dombas regions within Ukraine's borders with autonomy, but they didn't respect that. Ukraine was getting militarily stronger these last years with USA's support and there were a lot of rumors before Russia invaded that Zelensky's army was going to fully attack and tried to get the remaining cities of these regions (Donetsk: 900k population, Lugansk: 400k, Makeeva: 340k, Gorlovka: 241k, etc). Almost 7M live in Dombas and it's sad to see what's happening there. Once in the Soviet Union and the Russian Empire Dombas was called the heart of the country! They even were, besides Kiev, the richest regions in Ukraine before Maidan. I hope all ends soon. I don't care if it's under Ukrainian or Russian rule. People there have suffered a lot. They just need a government that respects the language they want to talk and their customs.
BTW, the other day I read one of your comments saying that Russia should be banned forever for threatening neighbor countries... I ask you two questions, aren't Turkish troops in Cyprus and Syria? Does Turkey get along with Greece and Armenia? You may reply to me that Turkish troops are there to help the Turkish population... well, Russia is allegedly there trying to help the Russian population.
