Azov Sea is a strategic choke point, which US/NATO are desperately trying to get access to. Hence the reason why the Ukrainian Govt
Nice spin there but you are forgetting the local politics.
Ukraine was and had access by the Crimea. With the annexation they lost that.
Or as you yourself point out
So no, Azov Sea doesn't belong to Russia
The problem with this logic is we see the same thing happening all over the world when ever there is a territorial dispute and NATO doesn't have to be egging any one on for that.
Ukraine would've have been better off having cordial relations with Russia and would have flourished in both trade and militarily strengthened itself,
The problem with that is it doesn't reflect the politics on the ground.
The Ukrainians politics. Ukraineis a classic case of lines drawn on a map as opposed to actually reflecting what was on the ground.
The claim you make fails here has you have the western portion of Ukraine having ethnic and cultural heritage closer to Poland and Germany well the eastern part of Ukraine having ethnic and cultural heritage closer to Russia.
This was the major driver of the conflicts where in the Post Soviet era most of the Russian trade fell along that divide as well with Russia employing and supporting the eastern part of Ukraine well systematically cutting off it's ties to the western part. This combined with leadership issues I.E. the system of the Ukranian government where Kiev appoints regional governors with little regards to local affaires and you generate discontent.
The continuous issues of corruption and stunted economic development as the industry of the western part tried to sell its wears but found few buyers. That's also text book.
So then came the economic aide offers. The A package deal from the EU And a package deal from Russia both with language that upon signing they had to be considered exclusive. To be signed by a President who was elected on a eastern majority.
This was the straw as they say.
The western populations have a strong EU And NATO slant the eastern a strong Russian.
Russia doesn't want NATO on its boarders it wants buffer States.
The western population prefers the EU and sees Russia as the threat.
So you end up with a divided nation.
The Russians see the situation in the ground and know that the western part tried to politically push them out of there Crimean bases. A critical asset to the Russian Navy with limited warm water ports as is so they re-annex the Crimea.
No national leadership can back down from that with out some resistance. Unless they are forced to as part of a humiliating defeat.