Hard to say what Putins end game is, he’s very clever. I hope the Russian people start protesting his covert meddling in Ukraine. Seems like they support it, so far. But of course, their media is almost entirely state controlled now.
I’m getting pretty skeptical of anything good coming out of this. Looking more and more like its going to be an all out civil war at this point, fueled by the EUROPEAN UNION and the USA on one side, and Russia on the other. The Ukrainians are stuck in the middle.
Ukrainians have their interests; we have ours. To the extent that our NATO commitments mean anything, it would be nice to have Ukraine as a buffer state (or a full NATO member). The further Russian troops have to travel to conquer Europe, the more time we have to rush GI's to Europe. The value of NATO states lies not so much in their military capability, but in the fact that Russian troops have further to go.