No matter how this all ends up, why not let the people decide? Have the people of Ukraine vote as to whether or not they want to be part of Russia. And if an overwhelming majority agrees, let them become part of Russia.
Of course Putin would never agree to and abide by this because the Russian government doesn't give common people any true choice as to how they want to be governed, do they? There is no single perfect way for all people to live and be governed. Everyone has different thoughts and ideas on what is right or wrong, and just because you're born into a certain culture or society doesn't mean you should be forced to follow a certain way of life or thinking because of the ill luck you had in being born into a culture/society you ultimately don't like, or want to be part of.
And all this crap about NATO and nukes in neighboring countries being part of the reasoning behind this "special military operation" makes no sense. With all the long range missiles and nuclear weapons in the world today, so what if you don't have missiles in Ukraine pointed at you? Chances are just a small country or two away there are other countries with missiles already pointed at Russia. Just like Russia and China and other communist countries have their missiles and nuclear weapons pointed right back at us and other non-communist and NATO countries in the world. I can only guess at how many missiles and nuclear weapons are right at this moment targeting and locked onto New York city or Washington DC, and await only someone giving the order to have them launched. And the same for those on our supposed side locked onto Moscow and Beijing. I'm guessing the real reason for the uproar is that a missile fired from the Ukraine at Moscow, versus one being fired from the continental US, wouldn't give the Russians as much time to detect the launch and shoot it down. And even if they were able to shoot it down in time, it would still be over Russian territory and likely to inflict damage to Russian people and property, as opposed to a weapons launch say from the US that gets intercepted and shot down over an ocean or some other country. And isn't that one of, if not the main reason, we had the Cuban missile crisis back in Kennedy's day? Our side thinks the same way. Maybe if ALL these countries, ON ALL SIDES of these arguments would just stop all the lies and BS they spew out to all the common ordinary people of the world, and for once were open and honest with the entire planet about what was really bothering them, maybe........just maybe, all these world leaders for once could do something for the betterment of all mankind, and not just for their stupid, greedy selves. But I ain't holding my breath, because at the end of the day we're all mostly still just stupid, selfish humans.
The problem with being humans is that there will never be 100% agreement on how we should live and interact with one another. So we are doomed to always have wars and conflicts it seems, at least till we finally succeed in killing ourselves off, or we're done in by some cataclysmic event beyond our control. One of my hopefully most realistically obtainable goals is that I don't live long enough to see either of those things happen. That along with one day completing an S74-1 white silk Ty Cobb advertising back run.
