Your argument only works if history begins with February 2022. It doesn't. It begins in the 90s when the US rigged Russian elections and financially raped their country, with the help of some seriously corrupt Russians.
Add NATO expansion starting in the 90s - that Russia was vehemently opposed to but we didn't care because they were weak.
The US overthrew the 2004 Ukraine election. As if we have any authority in Ukrainian elections! The West's candidate won, but we still didn't get what we wanted.
Add more NATO expansion in the and specifically the offer of NATO membership to Georgia and Ukraine in 2008. This was a huge red line for Russia, and this was well known to the US.
The US backed the violent coup in 2014 that overthrew the democratically elected government of Ukraine. This prompted the Donbass to secede, and Russia to annex Crimea. Civil war raged from 2014 to 2022.
Only when Ukraine had massed 60-100k soldiers on the border to the Donbass and increased bombing 3x (5x?) did Russia step in to stop what would have been the overrun and slaughter of the Donbass people.
Russia has STILL not wantonly bombed civilian centers. Compare Kyiv 18 months after the Russia's invasion with Baghdad 18 days after the US invasion for a direct comparison.
Yeah, reality is a little different than, "Putin launched the all-out attack on Ukraine."
"Time travel fantasies" are a way to point out that sometimes you fuck around and find out. There ARE no good alternatives for Ukraine now. That train left the station end of last year (at the latest). The sooner Ukraine and the West accepts that, the better for the Ukrainian civilians.
The BEST IMO that Ukraine can hope for now is to pull back to completely defensive positions and sit down with the Russians. Give the Russians politically most all of what they want (the 4 stated goals of the SMO) and make it clear that any additional ground Russia tries to take will be at a very high cost.
The Russians know that currently they have the advantage, and that advantage is only going to grow with time., unless a NATO The West has no desire to get into the fight inside Ukraine.
The current position of the West makes taking as much of Ukraine as possible while destroying as much of the rest of Ukraine the only way to achieve their goals.
The only way to change that is to make additional gains have too high of a cost for Russia. At this point I'm not sure that is possible, but the fantasy of demanding Russia give back everything - including Crimea - is a complete non-starter.
BTW and referring to your text I quoted above. Regardless of what happens, we can be sure nothing will trigger WWII. ;-)
