Luckily for you, I can give you a straight answer, considering I was born in Ukraine, lived in Ukraine, have friends in Ukraine, have family in Ukraine, kinda understand Ukrainian (admittedly, need to work on that part), and watch Ukrainian media.
For roughly 70 years, Ukraine was forcibly under the Soviet umbrella where Ukrainian language, culture, and identity were suppressed. Once the Soviet Union fell apart, slowly but surely, Ukraine begin to take a different course. Russia's horrible treatment of Ukrainians played a big part, just like it did with the rest of the European ex-Soviet states (except for occupied Belarus and Serbia). Or you think they want nothing to do with Russia because the EviL weST!!! told them to? This is what the people wanted, they wanted to live like people in the West, because it is better. More rights, better salaries, better quality of life, etc etc. I could talk about this for hours.
Point being, even when I lived in Russia before all this crap happened, I saw Russians trying to live like people in the West, too. Almost everything was copied from the West and many people wanted to either visit or live in the West. So why would it surprise you that Ukrainians, especially, would pick the Western way of life? Especially after being subject to repressions, genocides, etc throughout history? Even during the days of the Russian Empire, Russia meddled in Ukraine's affairs and attempted to destroy their culture, language, and identity. After the Orange Revolution, nationalism and patriotism increased in Ukraine even more, and the more Russia continued to meddle in the affairs of Ukraine, the more the regular people got angry at Russia (mostly just the government at that time). If you have any doubts, I can take you to Ukraine and we can walk around any random unoccupied city in Ukraine and you can ask them for yourself.
Now, let's talk 2014. Or better yet, 2013. I'm sure you already know that Yanukovych had the choice of pursuing stronger ties with Europe or with Russia. And I'm sure you already what he chose. What you probably don't know is that it's not what most of the people of Ukraine wanted. So they took matters in their own hands and overthrew the government, the good ole' American way (seriously, Ukrainians have been living out the wet dream of American Conservatives for the past 10 years, how could you possibly oppose this?) And as soon as they did, video and satelight footage IMMEDIATELY emerged of Russian military tech moving towards Ukraine. And that is when the TRUE war began.
Russia was able to get as far as it did because there were brainwashed Ukrainians who their agents paid and brainwashed. Or do you think that when the Soviet Union fell apart, Russian agents all got on planes and just went back to Russia? All those countries had their governments (and pretty much everything else) infiltrated for 70 years, you think things would instantly change the moment the Soviet Union fell apart? The ethnic Russians living in Ukraine and the pro-Russian Ukrainians were given Russian passports and could've EASILY just moved to Russia and lived there if they liked it so much. Instead, they chose to rip a chunk out of Ukraine and offer it to Russia. Does that make you wonder? What if Texas chose to become a part of Mexico, how would you want the government to react? Ukraine had no reason to bomb itself and mostly avoided doing so, but war is war, and once crap hits the fan, it gets ugly. Civilians WILL get bombed by both sides. But even then, listen to Russian propaganda talk about "Donetsk getting bombed for 8 whole years by Ukrainians" and look at photos of the city now. It's not in good shape, but it's there. Then take a look at Grozny, Chechnya, which was bombed by Russians. How often does Russian propaganda talk about how horrible it was that Grozny got nearly wiped off the face of the earth. Don't believe me? Look at the photos. Why do you think they talk about Donetsk but not Grozny?
And now, let's fast forward to 2022. Where Putin (after previously saying many times that he would never attack Ukraine) decided to invade because UKrainIan naZIs!!!! Tell me this, do you think Russia doesn't have any nazis? Or America? There are nazis everywhere, and there are no more of them in Ukraine than in Russia. Then he started finishing off what was left of opposition in Russia. Why doesn't Tucker interview Maxim Katz, the staff of Dozhd, Ilya Varlamov, the staff of Medusa, Novaya Gazeta (who, alone, had like 7 of their journalists murdered under Putin's regime)? Do you really think the man who murders or jails anyone opposes him (or even comes out with peace signs!) will allow Tucker to ask him any controversial questions? I don't even care about Tucker interviewing him, it's just interesting that people of you expect to hear anything that hasn't been spoon fed to Americans by Russian propaganda for years.