Sometimes, deescalation is through escalation. 20/20 hindsight, but Europe should have never allowed Georgia and Crimea to happen with the responses they did.

Sometimes, deescalation is through escalation. 20/20 hindsight, but Europe should have never allowed Georgia and Crimea to happen with the responses they did. I won't posture as an international policy expert, but I cannot believe there were no "stronger" responses to the initial seizures that would have prevented Russia from launching the Ukrainian invasion. Sanctions are a least-politically-risky option for a democracy, from a popular perspective. Putin's takeaway was that he could invade sovereign territory with only an economic response from the west. If you're going to pursue a course of action that Russia sees as endangering its strategic interests (promoting democracy and NATO membership in states that border Russia), then you need an equally strong threat (from Russia's perspective) to restrain their response.