My non-professional, armchair assessment is that this is a hopeless cluster-**** between two scumbag, criminal empires competing for their squares of turf to subjugate/exploit the population. 

It's interesting that the Communist (Marxist) oligarchy subjugated/exploited the population for the gain of Marxist ideology while the current controlling elements of government enable the exploitation for personal enrichment. 

So the odious militant domination of/oppression against the general populations of both nations practiced by the Tsarist oligarchy, was simply replaced with totalitarianism by a Marxist  oligarchy and has now been replaced with an oligarchy of criminal war-lords with no ideology at all save opportunism (they take that of value which may be taken). 

The Ukrainian criminal empire has convinced the world to support them in their corrupt government's efforts to prevent the criminals in Russia from taking control.

Nothing will change in the subjugation/exploitation of the people because the one thing that will remain strong and fundamentally unfazed by the episode will be the criminal organizations running the respective financial empires. After the soldiers have stopped dying on both sides, death will then only be handed out by Mafia enforcers but death will be as ever-present as before. 

See, 100% control equals 100% ownership - exterior appearances notwithstanding.  I think Zelensky is up to his forehead in Ukrainian organized crime just as Putin is in his involvement with (leadership of) the Russian Mafia. 

The more time that goes by the more the world's overall complexion appears more and more like something out of a William Gibson SF novel.*

Imagine if the U.S. government got involved in the Chicago/ New York gang wars of the 1800s-1900s and took sides. THAT is what I believe is an analogy to the current Russian/Ukraine war. This is what happens when two criminal empires want the same piece of real estate because they both want to carve it up for their consumption, people and all. 

The only legitimate reason to choose one side or the other is to discourage the primary aggressor from doing it again (invading). This World Police Force Utopian idealism is similar to the purpose of space-alien Klaatu's visit to Earth (from the classic film, The Day the Earth Stood Still, 1953)- to wit a group that enforces peace in the universe. The problem with the analogy is that Klaatu's people wielded overwhelming force and demonstrated this effectively. 

The so-called Global Community which is now attempting to "help stop the Ukraine war" and "punish the aggressor" (by supplying weapons to the Ukrainians) has had about as much effectiveness so far as children hiking in the woods who see two Grizzly bears fighting, trying to stop the fight by stomping their feet and shouting at the bears. 

* In the nightmare visions of author Gibson, the world of the near-future (100-200 years) will be dominated by billionaires acting in concert (similar to Frank Herbert's Great Houses) wielding high technology. Government is merely an afterthought/enabler of corporatism. Non-oligarchs serve as drones/savants or face destruction (whether legal or not). Morality and the Rule of Law are afterthoughts, facades and fictions perpetuated by universally-corrupt government officials.