The US has long recognized that Putin is a thug, and that Russia's security would be threatened if Ukraine were allowed to join NATO. The US has, however, refused to consider this same security externality when it comes to Russia's aggressions towards Ukraine.
The annexation of Crimea by Russia came after Ukraine sought an association agreement with the European Union, not with NATO at that particular point, leading to Vladimir Putin citing security concerns about the expansion of NATO as a reason to invade.
The root cause of the war between Ukraine and Russia is the inability of Ukraine to make the sensible and rational deal with Russia, where they had to relinquish some of their sovereignty due to the latter's superior power.
A heated debate on whether the West provoked Russia into invading other countries or not, and the importance of standing up for human rights and democracy in the face of authoritarian regimes.
The explicit nature of propaganda in an authoritarian regime is revealed in the emails of the Dominion lawsuit, where Putin literally appointed a man to present untruths as truth.