We can, and should, debate the role the US and our allies play in the unfolding tragedy, whether as spectators, by-staners, participants, or co-combatants, but let's not forget the human dimension of a people suffering under the reign of terror the Russians are now pursuing. Ukrainians know that Russian terror will not stop with surrender. The Holodomor, the forced famine in 1932-33 that killed 3 to 5 million Ukrainians (some estimates as high as 10 million) is still fresh in their collective memory. For a gripping account of the famine, now widely recognized as a genocide, see Snyder's Bloodlands:Europe Between Hitler and Stalin.
I know it sounds a lot like the "in order to have peace we must make war" refrain used to justify the Vietnam War , Iraq war and many other military entanglements over the last 70 years, but Russia's war on Ukraine is fundamentally different: Ukraine is defending itself against an invasion. Even if all the arguments about NATO expansion and Russia phobia are accepted, the basic fact still remains that Russia invaded Ukraine and it is executing a scorched earth military strategy against civilian populations. Whether Russia wants to create a buffer zone against real or imagined threats or it wishes to control rich Ukrainian soil, in either case it is an imperialist play, as Prof Snyder suggests, where the Ukrainian people are erased from the equation.
If we truly want peace in Ukraine, and an end to the terror rained on innocent civilians, we should want to give Ukraine all the tools it needs to defend against the Russian invasion. When Russia realizes the futility of its war of aggression against the Ukrainian people, maybe it will stop this inhuman course of action and a negotiated settlement becomes possible.