Don’t think we fiddled at all.
There was always going to be a realisation that Russia alongside the USA is a dominant nuclear power and is simply not beatable anymore in any sort of war because no one is willing to do what is necessary to beat it which is push the button.
Sanctions are not an ever lasting reality either. It’s not how the world works and at some point a normalisation of relations between the west and Russia has to be brought about and sadly, that was always going to mean a carve up of Ukraine with Putin given an “out” that saves his face domestically, doesn’t give him the win he wanted and more importantly saves the bulk of Ukrainian territory and lives and yes, the west money that it is pumping in whilst the costs of the sanctions not only hit Russia, they hit everyone.
Much like the Middle East, at some point it always has to stop and that means someone giving up something they swore they never would.
