Officials from more than 100 countries gathered in Switzerland over the weekend to discuss ways to end the conflict in Ukraine, devising a “peace formula” even as Western leaders continue to flood the battlefield with weapons.

Over and over, U.S. government officials and their mainstream media allies called Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine an “unprovoked attack.” The slogan became so overused that people began to ask the obvious question: Why do they protest so much? In Provoked: How...