They made it clear that if there is any attempt at establishing a Chinese military base there, the US wouldn't put a military response off the table.
Instead, goaded on the by the oligarchs and Putin, they are fighting a losing war that will hurt tens or hundreds of thousands over the coming years. There is 0 chance NATO will back off. Of course, it will also empower Putin, which is what Putin and the Oligarchs actually want. Russia fell right into their trap, and thinks they are being helped empowered.
Of course Russia would have been better off if they (and NATO) had been willing to negotiate.
Russia is not "goaded on" by Putin, it is directly controlled. They also don't care too much about the Ukrainians they are killing or hurting.
If Ukraine backs off, there's not much NATO can do about it - except perhaps start working on regime change in Ukraine.
> Of course, it will also empower Putin, which is what Putin and the Oligarchs actually want. Russia fell right into their trap, and thinks they are being helped empowered.
I don't unbeatable what these words are supposed to mean.
If you don’t hold that assumption, like myself, then your viewpoint seems absurd
So, Ukraine has a choice: seek to join NATO knowing that will eventually lead to conflict with Russia, but hoping you can beat them. Or, seek to attain a neutral status, where they can forge their own path between NATO and Russia, maybe on a model similar to Finland.
The option of peacefully joining NATO simply doesn't exist. Empires will never willingly allow anything like that, if they have any semblance of power to prevent it.
Note that the Baltic countries, who also share a land border with Russia, joined NATO at a time when Russia was so weak it could simply not do anything about it.
Who asked them?