Thanks for your response. You make some good points.

I get my news from foreign sources like Wion or DW because US news is very biased - either Fox or MSNBC. It also tends towards talking points instead of a real discussion. So I have found a lot more information about the Ukraine war that is not generally known in the US. I am going to get an article done soon with sources but here are some basic facts:

The Ukraine had a pro-Russian leader prior to 2014; at that point, the U.S. funded demonstrations in Ukraine to overthrow that leader, the same way the US government toppled the Shah of Iran.

Russia obviously did not like this.

Then, more recently, Ukrainian extremist groups were attacking Russians who were the majority in two areas of the Ukraine. Now there are 4 areas of Ukraine where they are holding a referndum on whether or not they want to become a part of Russia again. if we truly believe in Democracy and want to avoid a nuclear war, we would respect whatever the result of that referendum is.

The reason Putin originally gave for invading the Ukraine was to get those provinces since Russians living there were being killed. Since the invasion, the Russians have mostly stayed there while the Ukrainians have moved out.

I believe if Russia is given those areas, Putin will stop the invasion.

It's classic Sun Tzu - let Putin save face and he will back off.

In this case, those areas were majority Russian even before the invasion, and now they are even more so. If they remain a part of the Ukraine it may result in ongoing conflict the way Northern Ireland has been a source of conflict.

Part of the problem is also that we had a treaty with Russia that Ukraine (as well as some other countries) woudl not join NATO. So when we pushed for admittance to NATO for the Ukraine, that violated the treaty. Given Putin's paranoia, it make sense he would feel threatened by this.

If we don't want a nuclear war, we should negotiate a peace with Putin. Nuclear war woudl be very bad.