That's poor game theory.

Russia is a Mongol horde. Suing for peace against tribal border raiders (cooperate) is a rational strategy. If they know you'll always cooperate, then their best strategy is to always come back and attack (defect). Each time you achieve peace you lose land.

So, rational strategies are bad. You want to adopt an irrational strategy where you appear to be a crazy person willing to hurt themselves to get revenge - now attackers won't risk themselves in the first place.

This is why societies develop an "honor culture" and why NATO has that mutual defense clause.

Well, yeah. That is why you don’t prevent wars with sanctions.

Only if you're correct about them being a Mongol horde and not a rational actor, but their actions were predictable and were in fact predicted by professors years ago who understand the geopolitcal landscape and history of NATO.

No, they're rational actors in this scenario.

In real life Putin changed strategies in a way that made his country worse (turned into a Mongol horde) but personally improved him (gave him more power over the country).

He pushed for Ukrainian territory to be formally ceded to Russia after they occupied it by force and violence. His "peace plan" was then enthusiastically praised by Kremlin propaganda.

It seems his push for peace is always one sided in that all his ridiculous plans end with Russia being rewarded for aggression and Ukraine losing territory.

For some reasons many westerns believe that Russia will nuke the world before losing Crimea. I disagree but don’t see Musk being unique in believing this. Also and unfortunately, I do not see Ukraine taking back Crimea any time soon.

Except that isn’t what he said.

He said the people in those regions should be able to decide which country they want to be part of and that the result should be enforced/respected by both sides.

It’s a stupid opinion, but he didn’t say what you said he did.

He specifically said Crimea needs to be ceded to Russia.

I'll note that a request for examples was made several posts back and no one seems willing to post them, only describe their interpretation of them.

"Pushing for peace" doesn't mean anything. It could mean to push for an unconditional surrender of Ukraine, or for an unconditional withdrawal of Russian troops, or anything in between. The fact that you use this phrase along with the term "regime" tells me that you're a either a Russian propagandist or a someone who has been misled by Russian propaganda.

It means that you're working to find a peaceful solution. It's no different from people who opposed the Vietnam war and pushed for peace.

Framing that as enemy propaganda is propaganda that you have fallen for.

Yes, because they don't oppose war, they oppose a Ukranian victory. And by doing that they basically discredit themselves.