I think Ukraine is better off without Crimea.
But I am against the *spirit* in which the annexation was done. There was a palpable sense of vengefulness among the average (non-political) people of Russia over the whole thing...they figured the land-grab entitled them to the stature of Cold War times.
(During which the USSR was overestimated was plenty to begin with.)
And the current situation in Donetsk/Luhansk/Donbass (East Ukraine) is shameful. CLearly this was more than just about getting Crimea tacked back onto the Russian map. (Which I have since learned, North Korea haa already edited their maps for schools and things to acknowledge the change.)
Gotta look out for your friends.
Does all that really matter now?.....One good thing for the US came out of that ‘grab’......Putin revealed to our military generals etc. his capabilities that they had not known beforehand. It was indeed ‘Genuis” as they said.....without firing a gun...... But we learned a great deal from watching it happen. Putin would have never attempted it without weighing the cost of what he’d be ‘revealing militarily’... and determining worth that risk. He played it right and well a according to our generals......but also gave us a birds-eye view of much.