I mean if you want facts I can give you some facts.

I'm still waiting.

Russia stole Crimea and other eastern areas of Ukraine in 2014.

Sweet summer child... You know those regions were and remain full of people with Russian roots, right? THEY didn't move when the borders were redrawn in 1991, after all. Putin took Crimea after the American backed Maiden Coup. Don't believe me? Then why was senior US State Department official Victoria Nuland caught on tape deciding who the next president of Ukraine was going to be?

Bunch of ongoing conflict for the next 7 years bc, ya know, Russia literally stole their land.

No, the US and NATO sent hundreds of millions of dollars in arms to Ukrainian Nazis, Banderists they're called after the WWII figure who worked with the Nazis against the Soviet Union and kept at it with CIA backing ever since. The "Azov Battalion" used those Western supplies weapons against the ethnic Russian population in a deliberate effort to start the war you think began in 2022. The Russians did everything they could to make peace, including sign the Minsk I and II Agreements, which were used by NATO to rearm the Banderists. European leaders actually bragged about it... Because the West doesn't keep its word.

Russia begins amassing troops near Ukraine's border in 2021 for "training exercises" (which anyone who's ever played a Civ game before can tell you that's straight BS).

I'm a lot better at Sid Meier's Civilization than you've ever dreamed of being. Hell , my buddies and I helped build the Avalon Hill Advanced Civilization expansion (the board game that came before the computer game and kick-started the entire genre), probably 20 years before you were born!

Putin kicks off the "special military operations" and invades Ukraine in 2022.

Yet you still didn't know why?

Did you know that Putin and Zelensky had a peace agreement ready to sign- on very favorable terms to Ukraine- in March of 2022? Did you know that's why Boris Johnson flew to Kyiv to talk Zelensky out of it and promise not just hundreds of billions of dollars of weapons and support but riches for Zelensky himself? Now half a million Ukrainians are dead and millions more have fled the country.

And on a personal note, I don't consume CNN content, nor any other MSM since they're all trash.

Well, you're still parroting their lies so I'm not really sure what to tell you. Maybe start listening to better sources; professor Jeffrey Sachs, Michael Hudson, Scott Ritter, Pablo Escobar, Chris hedges, Max Blumenthal, and of course Snowden, Assange, Chelsea Manning, John Kiriakou, William Binney, and once you've gotten that far, you'll have a much better understanding not only of the situation in Ukraine but also in Gaza and throughout the Middle East and wherever America is projecting power.

I applaud your interest in these matters. Study hard; the world is not as you think it is; it's far more complex. Follow the money; it always leads to the truth.