The only so-called “justification” flows like this:

- Russia is a Superpower - Superpowers have a “natural right” to a sphere of influence - therefore Russia has a right to a sphere of influence.

- In Russia’s view, Ukraine is within their sphere of influence. - therefore Ukraine has no right to sovereignty, and certainly not to join adversarial alliances. - in fact, according to current Russian doctrine, *the Ukrainian people has no right to even choose its own government* if their choice is a government that is not an ally of Russia’s.

This is of course a completely monstrous view of history and nations and it allows for no space for - y’know - Ukrainians to have any say.

You can justify any monstrosity by saying “well Germany is a superpower and it deserves the right to determine its neighbor’s futures”.

And of course this is all nested in the old adage “Well the US did it too - in Iraq/Cuba/Chile/whatever” which is just a fallacy not worth the words it contains.

This is however predicated on multiple levels of completely nonsense. The best explanation I’ve seen is Stephen Kottkin on Lex Friedman’s podcast.