The very concept of a nuclear country being "pushed" (what does that even mean?) to wage a war against a country, which is more than 3x smaller in population and around 5x weaker economically, is simply delusional.
Russia attempted to wage a 19th century style conquest: brutal and open territorial grab including the subjugation and repression of the local population.
Yeah, when you have that much more power (or at least believe to), it's more about opportunity. Russia had an opportunity to invade because Ukraine was not part of NATO yet, and probably had rebuilt their forces (they seem to be waging a war every 6-8 years).
Any attempt to legitimize their attack by pointing to threats they imagine other countries pose to Russia, is easily countered by the very obvious and direct threat that Russia eagerly poses to other countries.
Temporary neutrality is not going to fix this; in 8 years, they're going to try again. All neighbours of Russia would be wise to join a defensive alliance.
The military funded think tank that prescribed all of our actions leading up to this point and accurately predicted Russia's responses disagrees with you.
No one wants direct nuclear war, but they do want to skirt around the edges and expand their power. The US has been in multiple hot proxy wars with Russia, the biggest being the attempted overthrow of Syria.
US leadership from both parties have publicly described Ukraine as a proxy war between the US and Russia. If you're still in the early days of the propaganda where Russia invaded Ukraine totally out of the blue with zero provocation from anyone and the US is just doing their best to protect the innocents, you're way behind.
If we return to where the war started, how did Ukraine first provoke Russia - by hoping to join EU, by existing? Ukraine could have been another non-allied country, but Russia escalated.
Regarding the role of the US and NATO in the conflict: "The interim Yatseniuk Government which came to power initially said, with reference to the country's non-aligned status, that it had no plans to join NATO. However, following the Russian military invasion in Ukraine and parliamentary elections in October 2014, the new government made joining NATO a priority." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukraine%E2%80%93NATO_relations
Russia didn't invade Ukraine "out of the blue". Russia has been at war with Ukraine since 2014, when it occupied and annexed Crimea, and at the same time orchestrated and instigated covert War in Donbas.
You ramble something incoherent about the RAND paper from 2019. Just to clarify this: yes, it is precisely where the defense research should have spent the money following the Russia's aggression.
Russia attempted to wage a 19th century style conquest: brutal and open territorial grab including the subjugation and repression of the local population.