Don't Forget the Goal of the Status Quo Ante

Whether or not Russia invades eastern Ukraine, don't forget that Russia invades Ukraine already by taking over Crimea. We should put Ukraine on the path to NATO membership while leveraging membership to get Crimea (and whatever else Russia might take) back in Ukraine's hands.

We're not going to war with Russia over Ukraine. But just letting the invasion stand while we go on as if nothing as happened (as we did after Georgia) pretty much means we'll get more of this behavior.

Or do you really believe Putin has no more near abroad territorial ambitions?

So why don't we put Ukraine on the path to NATO membership while Ukraine and NATO quietly talk to Russia to let them know that Russia has the ability to derail Ukraine's membership in NATO anytime they want by returning all of Ukraine's territory back to Ukraine?

We could even commit to letting Russia keep their Sevastopol base as a "victory" for their war on Ukraine.

In the meantime, being on a NATO membership path will allow us to help Ukraine modernize and train their military up to NATO standards--which will be useful for Ukraine whether Ukraine is in NATO or not in NATO.

And we could back a Ukrainian effort to charge Russia for the land and assets that Russia has seized.

Russia is too weak to forcibly absorb all of Ukraine. I have doubts they could absorb even the eastern Ukraine currently experiencing Russian-instigated unrest. So Russia would be foolish to respond to this approach with new military threats to push deeper into Ukraine.

Or are we to let Russia get away with violating the UN charter and the Budapest Memorandum, which also killed nuclear nonproliferation as well as the notion that the international community is capable of defeating old fashioned territorial aggression?