Prevent a large nation on their border from joining a political-military bloc (NATO) that exists explicitly to oppose their interests.
The blame ultimately comes down to the Western meddlers installing a fervently anti-Russian government in the Euromaidan coup.
Russians and Ukrainians are brother peoples, barely distinct from one another. If the Ukrainians wish to have an independent state, there is no inherent problem with that - but just as a Canada that is anti-U.S. would be a geopolitically impossible and untenable destabilizing force, a Ukraine that is anti-Russian is the same.