Russia is the last remaining 19th century European empire, and still takes the view that any territory they once ruled should be returned to their control. If Ukraine is forced to give up its territory in the east it won't be long before Vladolf Putler comes back for more, either by installing a puppet government a la Belarus in Kyiv or by renewing his invasion. If he gets away with it then Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Finland could be next on his list, then perhaps Poland, Slovakia, Czechia and East Germany. The only real solution would be to dissolve the Russian Federation into its constituent units and make each of them independent countries, as happened to all the other 19th century European empires. That isn't going to happen unless Moscow is defeated either militarily or economically but in the meantime they should not be allowed to add to their empire by conquest. There was a case a few years ago when Ukraine's voters were clearly split between east and west for breaking the country into two, and allowing the western half to integrate further with the EU and NATO while the eastern half remained in Moscow's orbit. The Kremlin, having failed to keep a puppet government in power in Kyiv, instead decided on invasion.I am sure that many people in Ukraine wish that they had not given up the nuclear weapons on their soil when the Soviet Union ended, in return for which they were given security guarantees by Moscow and Washington which proved to be not worth a bucket of warm spit.
Richard Greenhough ● 20d