Imagine some criminals invaded your house. What should happen? I think the first step is to regain control of your house and defeat the home invaders. How about you?
Would you give them the first floor in return for a promise not to come upstairs?
Never that simple and historically not accurate. The DON-bass, Crimea, and eastern Ukraine is mostly ethnic Russian and always has been. Stalin gave the Ukraine border for Krushev who was Ukrainian. Ukraine was never a nation and those borders were drawn on a political map. A lot of Western Ukraine was once Poland. Russia was protecting ethnic Russians. Russia should not have invaded, but Zelensky started this mess with Western assurance of military support when he attacked and first and began killing ethnic Russians. The Russians have wanted to negotiate, but Biden and his handlers want war. Europe and Ukraine broke the Minsk agreement and never intended to hold to it. That is what started this mess. The majority of Ukrainians do not support this war or Zelensky which is why he called off elections. His own people will take him out to end this war.