Maybe it’s true, maybe it isn’t, once you’ve invaded a territory it’s hard to assess, but it’s a fact that they violated Ukraine’s borders to add to their territory twice now.
International law matters here, because invading parts of other countries leads us back to 1914: you sacrifice the peasantry and treasury, but the “empire” is rewarded with territory gains for the history books, this influences military calculus so that wars become more likely if the trend catches on.
You are not free to speak your mind in russia and the government has not earned a reputation for telling the truth at any point since 2014.