Indeed, I believe European countries can protect themselves without needing to be puppets in the hands of the USA, that is why I fail to see the value of NATO.
Let me give you a small insight as to why Ukraine matters at this very moment:
Ukraine ranks:
1st in Europe in proven recoverable reserves of uranium ores;
2nd place in Europe and 10th place in the world in terms of titanium ore reserves;
2nd place in the world in terms of explored reserves of manganese ores (2.3 billion tons, or 12% of the world's reserves);
2nd largest iron ore reserves in the world (30 billion tons);
2nd place in Europe in terms of mercury ore reserves;
3rd place in Europe (13th place in the world) in shale gas reserves (22 trillion cubic meters)
4th in the world by the total value of natural resources;
7th place in the world in coal reserves (33.9 billion tons)
Ukraine is an important agricultural country:
1st in Europe in terms of arable land area;
3rd place in the world by the area of black soil (25% of world's volume);
1st place in the world in exports of sunflower and sunflower oil;
2nd place in the world in barley production and 4th place in barley exports;
3rd largest producer and 4th largest exporter of corn in the world;
4th largest producer of potatoes in the world;
5th largest rye producer in the world;
5th place in the world in bee production (75,000 tons);
8th place in the world in wheat exports;
9th place in the world in the production of chicken eggs;
16th place in the world in cheese exports.
Ukraine can meet the food needs of 600 million people.
Ukraine is an important industrialized country:
1st in Europe in ammonia production;
Europe's 2nd’s and the world’s 4th largest natural gas pipeline system;
3rd largest in Europe and 8th largest in the world in terms of installed capacity of nuclear power plants;
3rd place in Europe and 11th in the world in terms of rail network length (21,700 km);
3rd place in the world (after the U.S. and France) in production of locators and locating equipment;
3rd largest iron exporter in the world
4th largest exporter of turbines for nuclear power plants in the world;
4th world's largest manufacturer of rocket launchers;
4th place in the world in clay exports
4th place in the world in titanium exports
8th place in the world in exports of ores and concentrates;
9th place in the world in exports of defence industry products;
10th largest steel producer in the world (32.4 million tons).
Despite all the fancy numbers, the Ukrainian people are generally poor, which is a bit weird given all the riches the country has (around 40-45% of the people there are considered poor)
The bolded part is the main issue here. If you roll back the clock to the start of the Syrian War, the war there was all about Gas and nothing else. Studies showed that Syria has a shitload of Gas under its sea, this is why the so called arab spring (mainly funded and supported by the same countries that are part of Nato) extended to Syria.
The idea was to take down the syrian regime and replace it with a pro-usa/nato one (for me they are the same) so a gas pipe can be installed from Syria, passing to Turkey and then to Europe, hence reducing/ending Europe's reliance on Russia to get Gas (you do realize if Russia stops pumping gas to europe it's fecked right?). Putin intervened in Syria (to support a dictator yey!) only when the regime was about to collapse (ISIS were knocking on damascus' door back then), and this changed the whole strategy and the US and the European countries lost the whole project with Turkey (Belgium was one of the top countries selling arms and weapons to different factions there as well)
As a result, most European countries still heavily relies on Russia for Gas supply, forward the clock to this day, it's another war on who gets hold of Ukraine and end up controlling that part and the other resources (Germany and France were against Ukraine joining the NATO in the beginning)
This is not about NATO putting some missiles at the border with Russia, the same happened during the missile crisis in Cuba (when Soviet Union placed missiles there and the US threatened to go for all-out war) and everybody backed down when they came to an agreement, the same will happen with Ukraine now, unfortunately the women and children and soldiers there will die just because the two feckers (US under NATO umbrella and Putin)
The talks between USA and Russia and Nato members about Ukraine resumed a month ago, and looking at the shambolic state the USA is in at the moment (Biden is just bad), Putin took the opportunity and hit first.
All in all, feck both of them, the only loser here is the Ukranian people unfortunately.