Well my answer was in reference to why it was in the US’ interest to pump money into Ukraine so it will invariably be US centric. I’m not American by the way.

The right of self-determination is important but it is not sacrosanct and unassailable. Catalonia, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Quebec, Åland, Greenland - there are many areas around the world, where there is disagreement about where a region should belong. These are hard problems to solve, in some cases there’s been votes, in some places violent, minority resistance movements have arisen.

In no case has a region unilaterally declared independence and been invaded by a large neighbour. This just isn’t how we should play.

So if you’re hoping to use “the right to self-determination” as a justification for Russia’s actions, then I definitely reject that argument.