Putin's SMO was entirely related to restoring Imperial Russia. He clearly stated that Ukraine had no right to be a sovereign nation and that it rightfully belonged to Russia.Except Putin's SMO was a reaction to decades of US meddling on the Ukrainian/Russian border with the principal purpose of regime change in Russia.
Greedy western investors, using their political puppets to enhance their private fortunes, are as responsible for the human misery on display today in Ukraine, Yemen, Syria, Gaza, etc., etc., as they were for similar conditions in Korea, Greece, Vietnam, China, and El Salvador decades ago.
This isn't the first time Russia has gone to war against one of the nations that previously had been under the control of the Kremlin.