All of our brilliant Ivy-league and military think-tank strategic thinkers should have seen very clearly where this was leading in 2013, especially since they encouraged it.
Ukraine never had to give up land, not even Crimea. It could have been kept whole, and focused on developing itself and eliminating corruption.
All they had to do was simply declare, like Austria after WWII, they would be a neutral country.
But since Ukraine was never were a real country, and its “elite” class simply focused on stripping the country and enriching themselves, the place was always going to be corrupt, divided and controlled by others - first by Russians, and then after 2013, by the USA and NATO.
The telling thing is that nobody from our side seems to have any interest whatsoever in trying to negotiate a peaceful settlement to this crisis. Not even a half hearted attempt at stopping the steady escalation. It would be nice to see some effort to avoid a slide into Armageddon. Just saying.