Ukraine DID sign a peace deal...in 2015. Russia and Putin personally pushed hard for Minsk II to be implemented. We have learned through statements from Poroshenko, Merkel and Hollande that Ukraine and the west NEVER intended to implement the peace deal, and explicitly used the time to prepare forTHIS war.

Ukraine could have saved ALL of their country. The price was partial autonomy for the Donbas, and specifically then that the Donbas could veto Ukraine joining NATO.

More in a comment thread I had yesterday with a Ukrainian (IIRC) lady who has some interesting posts:

https://jlalbrecht.medium.com/that-is-probably-true-9d0fb3d0c491