> This is agression on the Ukraine

Someone steals a chunk of Ukraine territory. Six years later, someone else admits that it happened, and that's aggression? The aggression was taking it in the first place!

(Yes, the one who took it in the first place is the same one who "recognized" the taking six years later...)

The only way this is aggression is if Russia uses it (or Ukraine's or the west's response to it) as a pretext to take more territory.

It is a bit more complicated, because on paper Russia until today recognized separatist-controlled territory as a part of Ukraine. The problem is that DNR/LNR state that their borders are the same as Donetsk/Luhansk oblast, which is a much bigger region. Second, Russia involvement with 'republics' was mainly with keeping status quo since spring of 2015, that changed in 2021, and what they are going to do now, nobody knows.

So is Russia recognizing them, or is it also recognizing their claim?

That is, the US recognizes China, but does not recognize their claim of the Nine-Dash Line. You can do one but not the other.

> I am not sure the EU can come to agreement with harsh sanctions

That's the point. This has the benefit of driving wedges between NATO members and making NATO look weak and ineffective.

Eh what? Have you ever been to Ukraine? What 'Russian people'?

I mean the comment your replying is total nonsense but there are definitely a lot of ethnic Russians in Ukraine. Especially in the Donbas.

I am myself could be considered an (at least partly) 'ethnic Russian", my grandfather came to Kyiv from St. Petersburg. There are no ethnic Russian enclaves in Ukraine, there is no way to find out whether a person in front of you is "ethnic Russian" or "ethnic Ukrainian". Does it matter that 50-100 years ago somebody's ancestors came from Russia to Ukraine? In Eastern Ukraine almost everybody uses Russian as their primary language, no matter whether they are "ethnic Russian", "ethnic Ukrainian", Jews or Tatars or Greeks (there is a sizable Greek community in Mariupol region). The level of assimilation is very high. What's important is whether a person is a follower of some Russian nationalism ideology, or neo-stalinism, or something like that. "Ethnic Russian" does not mean "Anti-Ukraine".

Good, because those sanctions would hurt Europe badly and pull it into a deep recession while it would not affect the US much.