You make a huge number of assumptions in coming to your conclusions. "Russia wants this" "Eastern Europe wants that" "Poland would never..." "Moscow doesn't care..." etc.

I can't tell from your bio, but I'm guessing like most Medium members you are an American living in America (also your word choices, grammar and punctuation lead me to that conclusion). Meaning that unless you work very, very hard, 95% of what you hear about Russia, the EU and particularly the former Warsaw Pact members of the EU all comes from the 5 giant corporations that control nearly all media in the US. Your jingoistic anti-Russian position mirrors exactly what those 5 big corporations say about Russia.

I don't know what Russia really thinks or wants, nor Putin specifically. Neither do you. I judge Russia and Putin on their actions. On that metric, it is clear that we (the US) are far more aggressive towards Russia than they are towards us. There is no moral or legal justification for that aggressiveness.

I live and work in the EU for about 30 years, 30 minutes from the border to the old Warsaw Pact countries. I work and travel extensively in former Eastern Europe. EE leaders are mostly in lock-step with the US/NATO. The people are not.

The way the war is going we'll find out soon enough what Russia's intentions are for Europe. Russia will win this war in Ukraine. What Russia does AFTER the war is what is important.