The 2014 coup in Ukraine was supported by the Obama Administration and became a core agenda of the Democratic party. This is why Clinton thought the election had been stolen from her and the Democrats focused for four years on ‘Russia-gate’. Trump was a break from this Democratic agenda although in the end he did arm the Ukrainians.

The best course of action would have been to keep Ukraine neutral, and not encouraged them to hope for entry into NATO. I think Trump and some of the Republicans were promoting this policy.

When Biden was elected, Putin realized that the U.S. would revert back to Obama era policy. The Obama-Biden policy is both aggressive economically, but weak militarily. Passive aggressive.