Yep, appeasement just invites more conquest when you are dealing with someone like Putin.
I’m not going to defend Putin, but looking at Eastern Europe since the Cold War ended lets see who’s practiced appeasement, expansion and aggression.
When the Cold War ended NATO and the US informally told Russia there would be no expansion of NATO eastward, it wasn’t in writing so the word was a few years later screw you Russia. Was that promise kept? Fourteen new countries all former Soviet Pact countries were allowed to join. The Russians were upset and angry but did not start a war and appeased NATO, allowing it’s expansion literally right to it’s border in some cases.
When the Russians started pushing back in the Crimea NATO acted like they were pure as the driven snow and were flabbergasted at Russian behavior. Again I am not justifying the behavior just looking at the overall picture since 1991.
There are no innocents in this coming cataclysm, BOTH sides have behaved stupidly and disingenuously: practicing aggression, expansion and appeasement.