Wattie. I doubt that merely holding a contrary opinion would get you banned. Nor would I wish it.
We're not talking about Covid in this thread. The mods are all over thread drift of late. So let's not go there.
And not because you're not talking nonsense, because you are. But, that's okay. I suspect we all do that at some point or another.
If you believe Putin will stop at Ukraine, if Ukraine was just to roll over and quit, you'd be mistaken.
Ask the Baltic States. Putin firmly believes that they should never have left / been allowed to leave the Warsaw Pact.
The 'Baltics' are convinced that Russia will invade there, once its regrouped after conquering Ukraine. Why? Because they still have significant Russian populations that chose to stay, despite the animosity of their host nations.
We agree. Which is partly why we've had an Army and RAF presence there, along with other NATO countries.
Putin probably wants to reunite Kaliningrad to Russia. There's only one way into Kaliningrad. Through NATO.
Finland and to a lesser extent Sweden wouldn't have suddenly pleaded for a fast track to NATO membership, if their intelligence services weren't advising their governments to be concerned. Remember, these countries hadn't felt the need to join NATO during the depths of the Cold War. What's changed, d'you think?
Unfortunately Wattie, the historical precedents are relevant and recent enough, to teach us that above all else Putin fears a repeat of his formative years. Scrabbling for scraps of food, in a city ravaged by a Western army. Which is why Putin feels an overwhelming need for a return to the Cold War buffer of Warsaw Pact states sitting between Russia and NATO. Ukraine is his opening move. Belarus would be next. Then all he'd need is the Baltics. Plus Moldova. Salami slicing is how best to achieve it. Push West but only do it incrementally. So, Western political leaders always seek a political compromise, before invoking the NATO Charter of an attack on one is an attack on all.
There is nothing logical in Putin's mindset. Unless you were that young boy in Leningrad in the late 1940's and had seen every part of your country West of the Ural mountains completely destroyed. And you wanted your legacy to be a security blanket of client states in the West. Willing or not.
Like it or not. Our choice is binary. Support Ukraine down to the last Ukrainian now, or be ready to be on the front line again in the very near future.