Quote Originally Posted by Titus Marcellus Scato View Post
Hopefully it will end in a compromise.

The West should propose a treaty with Russia that recognises the Crimea as part of Russia, in exchange for Russia guaranteeing the borders of the rest of Ukraine. The treaty should also expressly prohibit further NATO or EU expansion into the former USSR - meaning that Ukraine (and Belarus) can never join NATO or the EU, in return for Russia being expressly and publicly prohibited from any kind of military, political or economic intervention in favour of Russian ethnic minorities in other countries.

That way everyone gets some of what they want. Russia gets Crimea and an end to NATO/EU expansion toward Russia, Ukraine gets Donetsk and Luhansk back as the pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine will collapse without Russian support, and the West gets a treaty protecting the Baltic states with Russian minorities, thus avoiding a conflict between Russia and NATO.

The Russian minorities may not like it, as they will feel Russia has abandoned them, but if they don't, they should emigrate to Russia.
Russia will never accept such a thing. It is in their interest to destabilize Ukraine. While outright annexation is unlikely, Putin would undoubtedly like to have the country. Further, it is in the interest of the West to keep Russia under wraps, hence more-or-less friendly relationships with former soviet republics.