The scourge of the human race this century - superficiality - is playing a huge part in all this too. Sorry, it's not enough to condemn Putin for "invading". Or to say "Ukraine should be part of the USSR" because lots of people want that. This is again a complex problem and slogan solutions will not work. In fact they will cause more deaths (as they have done in so many other ways, including the child abuse/false allegations/rape problem; neither extreme is correct).

US gunboat diplomacy at it's final destination..encircling Russia ( despite promising not to) because they have more nuclear weapons than the US)

the coming result : Russia, China and most of South America in a formal alliance with unrivaled power.

In 20 years China's power alone will outstrip the US.

Already they are cracking down on gambling (announced quietly the other day & unnoticed by most hacks- especially in Oz where billionaire James Packer has sunk a fortune into Maccau & elsewhere casinos -he should have consulted my crystal ball) ..which some may think a small insignificant thing but... it's their way of stopping Chinese profits going abroad...unlike the US Or UK who look on gormlessly as their economies are looted by tax avoiders cheered on by nameless people (JK & ITK).

Tell your children to have their children learn Mandarin.

There are probably some power-crazed individuals who are only too happy to see bodies in the streets if it helps them to make their point. A place surely cannot go from peace to war overnight without it being deliberately stirred up, especially if there are foreign troops involved. It's like playground tactics but with people's lives.

That may well be one of many ingredients but, as I say, the real problem is that most situations have complex elements and simplistic solutions help nobody but only make things worse.

I don't think it is very complex.

A CIA right wing backed coup of a (corrupt) Ukraine democratically elected government with a new US puppet regime elected.

Neo Nazis gangs are running rampant and being encouraged to kill as many rebels as possible.

Who can blame Russia for standing up to them?

how on earth can the US & UK possibly object to Russian actions when they themselves have invaded so many countries or backed dodgy "rebel" gangs in Libya, Afghanistan, Egypt, Syria, Iraq etc.

We should be glad Russia has power as our countries stuff up their invasions - the result ..murderous ISIS etc

I'm not as informed as you about the details but Ukraine looks complicated to me, as an outside observer.