I don't they're trying to force anyone into anything: they offered Zelensky the rooftop helicopter ride out. The expected Ukraine to collapse almost immediately, and even afterwards hedged their bets by only doling out military aid in small chunks. Only the Germans have been dragging their feet, mainly because of the SPD's close ties to Putin. By having done so little, Germany now plays almost no role in determining the outcome of the war despite the fact that they will suffer the most from the loss of Russian gas.
Ukrainian resistance turned out to be far stronger that they or Putin expected, which is now leading to Putin trying to up the ante and coerce Ukraine and NATO to accept his annexations. That won't work.
“Only the Germans have been dragging their feet, mainly because of the SPD’s close ties to Putin.”
The Germans have been dragging their feet because they know there is no popular support among their people to directly involve themselves into this. Recently there have been mass demonstrations in Germany and elsewhere in the EU to do away with the Russian sanctions because the cost of energy there has gone thru the roof. The Neocons noted this and thus took out the pipelines as they saw Germany and the EU going soft, so they basically took that option away.
Sourcing their gas from the US and elsewhere means it’s costing them 2-3 times as much as they were paying Russia, rendering their economy uncompetitive. The only country benefitting from this Ukraine proxy war is the US, the EU is screwed.