1ºIf the US TRULY believes Russia is going to invade, they only have a few options, all of them bad.
1. We can accept Ukraine as a NATO member under emergency conditions (VERY LIMITED TIME LEFT) in which case article 5 would be triggered and WWIII would start. NATO forces are not in position and would likely not arrive fast enough to defend Ukraine.
2. We can provide lethal aid to Ukraine (we are doing that) as well as providing intelligence (that may or may not work
3. We can give Russia what they want but appeasing bullies doesn’t work.
2ºIt is naive to think that Putin formed his perception of a strategic advantage this year. He has Trump to thank for victories in Crimea, Syria, Libya, and other places in Africa. Where exactly did Trump stand up to Putin’s expansions? Trump was busy being a mule for Netanyahu and protecting the butchers of Saudi Arabia and neighboring condom states, only to have them contract with China for a ballistic missile factory. Trump supporters need to admit his foreign policy was nothing but losses and defeats from North Korea, to China, to Africa, and even Europe. If the US and NATO could do much they wouldn’t need to make threats.
3ºI posted this previously but here goes again: I am not a fan of Putin but he is entirely justified in objecting to NATO expansion into the Ukraine, since it truly is an aggression against Russia. The Ukraine should never be in NATO, since it would signal the demise of that organization. Remember that NATO countries have a mutual defense agreement, in which an attack on one is considered an attack on all. The Ukraine could easily provoke an attack from Russia, thereby sending the entire world into war. There is no way the European allies would go along with this, and that would be the end of NATO. Putin knows this and hence, he's holding all the cards.