However, I view Putin’s response (the invasion) as an overreaction
We said we would absolutely not negotiate on it, Ukraine is on a NATO fast track. NATO was already talking to Ukraine about evicting Russia and handing Sevastopol over to NATO navies. The Ukrainian government is controlled by Nazi militias. And there was ethnic cleansing in the east.
Letting it go any longer would mean it was non reversible. That Russia would have to live with a NATO force, Nazis and ethnic cleansing next door forever.
You call an overreaction, he was left with two choices, the bad choice of invading, or the really bad choice of letting it become a permanent reality.
And that doesn’t even get into the next problem. Our neocons and globalists were already talking about how to do a Russian color revolution and install navalny or another Ivy globalist.
He really had no choice other than accept our dictated terms or fight.
Yours is a good counter-argument. The whole Ukraine vs. Russia situation is a mess. Much of it is NATO’s fault for not being more sensitive to Russian concerns right after the fall of the Soviet Union.
On the flip side, Russia/Soviet Union has a history of being rather unfriendly to its neighbors. (That unfriendliness towards neighbors is of course not unique to Russia.)
There are no good solutions here. The best we can hope for is some sort of negotiated peace. Trump could pull that off. I don’t think anyone else can.
Russia already borders several NATO countries.
The problem is if Ukraine was let into NATO, then when he invaded later, he’d get automatically spanked by NATO. As is, he only has to fight Ukraine, and they’re barely managing that.