In my mind, Russia giving up the Ukraine is akin to the US giving up Texas(who might also prefer to be a sovereign nation) in these dark days.
Russia will not repeat the same mistakes of the past by acquiring places they cannot manage. But The Ukraine is the under-belly of the Mother Russia. Why are we so naive to think Russia would not fight to keep it? The other countries bordering Russia are not threatened.
End of story..
A complete non-comparison. And you still say "The Ukraine"?! Really?
Ukraine is a sovereign independent nation, recognised around the world, with a seat at the UN etc etc. If you want to change borders, you do it by treaty and negotiation, that has been the bedrock of the post-WW2 world order. Russia has deemed Crimea Russian territory and taken it within a month. Texas is a part of the USA. Ukraine is not a part of Russia.
It never ceases to amaze me that Russia does this, and then accuses OTHERS of fascism and interference - and that apologists around the world (or "useful idiots" as Lenin called them) repeat the charge. How much more interfering can you get than to seize part of another country's territory?!
Even in the USSR Ukraine was not in Russia but was a separate constituent part. Russia insists it is the successor state to the USSR, so it can't cherry-pick the decisions made by Moscow in those days that it doesn't like - and that includes the 1954 transfer, ratified by the Soviet parliament, of Crimea to Ukraine.