Also remember at the time, the official stance of the entire western left was “Russia isn’t going to invade, this is played up media hysteria”. When that view was proven wrong, many over corrected to the official US state department view or nihilistic both sidesism because their view of the situation was very shallow, they didn’t know anything about Donbas or Crimea or the Maidan. This is true even on /r/genzedong, where most were caught off guard and a majority started making mealy mouth denunciations of Russia instead of critically supporting them. It was a vocal minority that pushed back against the chauvinist impulse and made the case that Russia is acting in an anti-imperialist and anti-fascist way in this situation.

Nobody was listening to the minority of non-Russophobic communists and anti-imperialists saying Russia may likely invade as it has X, Y and Z legitimate concerns leading up to the war. Those people were called pro-Putin stooges, little green men, russiabots, pat socs, etc. even though they were correct. It was only after the western left’s shallow worldview of big bad (yet impotent) Putinist Russia was popped that they seriously began to take the views of these anti-imperialists seriously and began to consider to the Russian perspective, or consider hearing what Russians have to say without instant dismissal.