Maybe i have to explain to you freedom and democracy. Its totally irrelevant want Russia wants. Ukraine decides its fate. Russia is a facist dictatorship that offers nothing but misery. Thats the core issue why evryone around it wants to escape its influence. It simply has nothing to offer. Add the fact that they genocided millions of Ukrainians in early 20th century under Stalin and you will realize that Russia has lost this.
Here are the core points:
- freedom of nations to chose their alliances
- guaranteed integrity of a nation states borders
If you sacrifice Ukraine it will be like Hitler in 1938, when appeasement was used and Czech Republic sacrificed to the Nazis. Next would be Poland, Sweden, Norway and the Baltics.
So whats the goal now? Ukraine gets pushed up with weapons to make any invasion attempt of Putin an expensive one. Add that there is the threat of Russia being blocked out of SWIFT which would be the nuclear kill button for Russia.
Its in Russias hands now, if Putin invades Ukraine he risks the complete annihilation of the russian economy and casualities in the tenthousands. Ukrainians have become fiercly defendents of their nation and are equipped now with advanced weapon systems.
Oh and Putin managed that Sweden now thinks about joining NATO as well, simply because its security is seen in danger from Russian attempts to invade as well.
The cances of Russia invading Ukraine are zero as well, since Russia would get annihilated. The threat of being cut of SWIFT as nuclear option is enough to prevent this anways.
Putin is a rather simple dictator and ageing but he is not an idiot. He knows 100% that the West will not accept any attempts of Russia to gain influence in Europe. So what we will see is a stall in the status quo.