@dickflatteningenthusiast He's right, up until the point he isn't.
Ukraine was promised security, but it also promised neutrality in turn, and asking to join NATO broke that.
There's also the reality of nations who border much larger ones.
Ukraine is a vassal state, that's their place, nothing they can do.
So they must choose:
Vassal of Russia, and a pretend neutral nation selling grain to Europe, or vassal of the US as member of NATO another frontier in the generational war against Russia.
Let us not forget that NATO's purpose is to bring Russia to its knees for globo-homo.
Russia understandably doesn't want that on its borders, and while Ukraine doesn't have nukes, they also don't have much of anything else, it's NATO's (read American) weapons the Russia is rightfully worried about.
Putin can be blamed for many things, but the war in Ukraine isn't one of them.
He did what he must to maintain Russia's sovereignty.
Note that Finland is also on Russia's borders and a member of NATO, but it didn't join until after the war in Ukraine went into full swing, in 2023 though clearly plans were on the table before that.
They don't have any NATO bases yet, that is planned for next year.
The NATO alliance, much like the league of nations before it, will be the cause for WW3, bet on it.
Source for the map is NATO's website.