We can probaly have an earnest discussion without getting into a fist fight or shooting one another. You dislike the "exagerated" view on one side and I don't like it on the other side. So what really is important in order to come to some sort of agreement or at least an understaning?
Well I guess the first thing is that we have to be working from the same set of facts. I agree that the US meddled in 2014, but I will point out that was a different guy. Poroshenko is not Zelensky, and if Poroshenko was a US puppet that does not make Zelensky one.
If you say the US/NATO planned this all from the start, etc- then you have to explain the first month when everyone was predicting Ukraine's defeat, no western heavy weapons were flowing into Ukraine, but Ukraine still overcame all odds and prevented Russia from taking Kiev. And I will point out that it was Putin that invaded Ukraine, not the other way around, and that no one was threatening Russia last February.
If you think the US has given $100 Bn to Ukraine, that is just not true, it's closer to $15 Bn actual. The lend-lease only went into effect October 1, and a large part of the aid is really just purchase authority. Ukraine can request from the Pentagon and the DOD contracts with the manufacturer for the systems. Which ($15 Bn) is still a lot, but it's not $100 Bn. And we would agree if you said the aid has to be followed, and we need to make sure it goes where it's intended.
I use these as examples, not saying you made any of those arguments yourself. But to reach understanding, first we would have to agree on what is a fact.
Let's declare what we think the goal of Putin is and what we think the goal of Zelensky is. You can go first - or shall I? Once we do that we can then see if the facts (or apparent facts) support what we believe.
I think Putin's primary goal is to stay in power. I think he has made promises to the Russian people that he can't deliver, and he has boxed himself in between the hard-liners and the public. He has an embarrassed military and an agitated public, and that's not a good combination for someone in Putin's position.
His goal- which he views as his legacy, is to be the strongman who re-established Russia's muscle in the global order, and that includes what he said in his Peter the Great speech. If he could, he would take the balts and northern Poland tomorrow. He wants dominance of the Black Sea, and a contiguous Russia from Kaliningrad to Moldova and beyond.
Zelensky is easy. He is fighting for the survival of Ukraine as a sovereign nation.
These are simply opinions, and mine are no better than yours. I don't really focus on that part- I am mainly just watching what's happening on the ground in Ukraine day-to-day.