I feel like you lose a lot of credibility when your geopolitical analysis hinges on boners. I think very few would disagree with you if you said that Putin were cynically pursuing his and the Russian state's interests in the region, with complete disregard for civilian life.

The point is not that there are 'a tiny number of Nazis' in Ukraine The point is that there are a large number of Nazi paramilitary forces who were committing mass murder in Donbas well before the Russian invasion, and the Ukrainian government was complicit in these crimes, in addition to crimes of their own, such as shelling civilian targets. By all means, let's talk about ending the conflict, because the suffering of the people of Ukraine has gone on long enough, but a necessary first step is acknowledging that the conflict had already begun long before Russia invaded.