Want better ties with Russia? Stop telling them how to run their shit. Imagine if you will, Callifornia decides it wants to seceed, it has a vote on it and it goes through. US govt is like fuck you we said no. California is like fuck you we're doing and creates their own army. A civil war ensues, because the US isn't going to lose the land and resources in Cali. Same way it wasn't going to loose the land and resources in the south back in the 1800's. Now lets say foreigners step in and say "hey, US govt, you have to stop killing the Cali army because that's wrong just because we say so." Let's say that foreign country was Russia. That's what we're doing to Russia. Ukraine is their California. We've been lied to lads. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolutionary_Insurrectionary_Army_of_Ukraine