You're a few steps behind the ball my friend. The overtures of Sino backing of Russia have been pretty loudly resonating over the last few years. The neutrality now likely being a consequence of trying to gauge whether the U.S. is actually willing to flex in response to an invasion by another nuclear power. They've had their eyes on Taiwan, and if their leadership thinks they can get away with it, they'll likely give it the old Hong Kong treatment.
Especially since Ukraine, being the leading source of neon, is also a sizable link in the U.S. semiconductor supply chain. Not quite as big ticket as TSMC, but big enough to serve as a useful gauge for strategists and planners.
Gen Z has little or no exposure to outright saber rattling. Just proxy wars, which globalization somewhat optimized for until realpolitik came back around to start biting once folks started understanding the soft power play of post cold war economics.
3 generation rule at play. We've got the direct witnesses of heavy geopolitical action on the way out.
The boomers->X->Millenial know the aftershocks, and at least know what didn't work for the "The Greatest Generation". Z and forward are a refreshing breath of fresh air in de-bullshitting, and have access the way more information than any previous generation had all at one time, but that's a vulnerability at the same time without strong bullshit filters, and a collective sense of both unity and the real. The Real* is not entirely a "here's your canned reality" from the media, but a collective and relatable ground truth experience that crosscuts the population. I'm afraid one thing we've really dropped the ball on is as teachers, and institutional raisers and propagaters of strong bullshit filters. Especially given the information augmented battlefield of today.
Definitely keep doing what you're doing though. Ain't no way to get the head for it but to do it.