The Germans now seem willing to accept Russian expansion into eastern europe in exchange for Russian gas. I am stunned by the timidity of the Germans. They are not stupid and have to know Putin won’t stop with Ukraine. They don’t seem to care.
If Ukrainians want to keep their land, they need to fight. Nobody else is going to do their fighting for them. Every cause needs martyrs. The moment the shooting starts, I suspect the part of the world that loves underdogs will side with Ukraine, which is clearly the aggrieved party here. But without shooting and martyrs to the cause, nobody's gonna be shamed into supporting Ukraine. As I've mentioned elsewhere, it took the Afghans almost a decade to turf the Soviets, and 6 months to build up before the operation to eject the Iraqis from Kuwait began. This may be the calm before the storm, the Phoney War interlude.
If Ukraine will not fight it may end up becoming a province of Russia all over again. If it does, the pictures of heroic sacrifice against the Russian invader should get Ukrainian and other ex-Warsaw Pact emigres to open their wallets, not to mention get Ukraine material assistance from both the EU and US governments after some prodding from outraged citizens. Nobody cared about Bosnia until pictures of dead people started coming out. After that, Clinton had no choice.
Because of Germany's wartime history with Russia, it can't take the lead in confronting Russia, at least in public - its primary visible role will be as the moneybags supporting whatever measures are agreed to by the EU. In private, however, it might be orchestrating measures against Russia, with some other country as the public face of those efforts, perhaps a front-line state like Poland, which is clearly the aggrieved party in its relationship with Russia.