jwb

Whether you are owed a buffer state is not the point. Their national security depends on said buffer state. Thus they have strong interests to intervene in the process of Ukraine gravitating towards nato. Much more so than any other former Soviet territory. So the idea that Ukraine is just step 1 to Russian conquest in Europe is pretty dubious.

I understand why those nations want nato protection. I also understand why that's a direct threat against Russia when a country that has a large wide open border is going to potentially have nato troops and arms on their border which they will then have to expand the military to protect.

The United States would never abide this sort of thing in our own back yard - the Monroe doctrine dictates we have supremacy over essentially the entire Western hemisphere.