These seem to be honest questions and I see you want the U.S. to play a role as peacemaker and not warmonger in Ukraine. There is so much tragic history here, so much propaganda coming from both sides, it is really hard to keep a truly human perspective. The situation has degenerated from one in which intermarriage was frequent and shared statehood was assumed natural (after 1991) to a situation where different Russian / Ukrainian majority regions tended to vote for different oligarchs and parties, to street violence and local civil wars after Maidan, and finally now to all out war between Russia and the Ukrainian state.
There is no single Ukrainian “Russian-speakers” view of this tragic evolution. Russians in Russia are not the same as Russian speakers who long identified, or still identify, as Ukrainian. Zelensky himself was born in Russsia and speaks that language better than Ukrainian.
Many Russian-speakers certainly did fear Maidan and especially those right sector groups involved in it who openly praised WWII fascist “patriots” like Stepan Bandera. Even many pro-EU liberal Ukrainians accepted Bandera as an official “Hero of Ukraine” and defended right sector militia as necessary once street fighting broke out in 2014, though this was terrifying to Russians influenced by old Soviet or Russian nationalist views. Both sides made mistakes, and Russian “volunteers” from outside Ukraine’s borders joined in and expanded the civil war in Donbas, actually taking it over, making it into a state to state problem.
I would agree the West made diplomatic mistakes in handling this difficult evolving situation, but Putin’s state invasion last year was unwarranted and an international disaster. Putin will probably try at least one more big push, and continue missile strikes from safe launching pads in Belarus and Russia … before any real exhaustion sets in and raises the real possibility of a ceasefire.
I think the West is, regrettably, now locked into the absolute need to defend Ukraine … without providing troops or expanding the war openly against Russia proper. The basis for a successful ceasefire or peace negotiation will most likely eventually be based on pressuring Ukraine to give up its claims to Crimea, and forcing Russia to stop bombardments of Ukraine and threats of invasion. Much of Donbas will probably end as a “frozen conflict,” with much of the area almost unpopulated, largely destroyed, partly occupied by Russia, awaiting future developments.
I think the Biden Administration has handled this most recent phase of terrible all-out conventional war … about as well as can be expected. I really don’t see how Europe or the West could just stand by and allow Putin to triumph after Ukrainians succeeded in throwing back Putin’s invasion last year.
