"Instead of escalating the war in Ukraine the West should cooperate with Rus..." STFU. This was tried, for decades. The spent the 90s and 2000s trying to accomodate Russia after the Soviet Union collapsed: Favorable loans, NATO partnership for peace, business ties, market access, student exchange, tourism, agreements, countless billions in deals & investments, G7 invitations etc. Russia always got a chair at the table. But Putin's Russia was never interested in peaceful cooperation or shared prosperity. Russia could simply never let go of the belief that they have the God-given right to rule over the countries and peoples of Eastern Europe. The idea of their "sphere of influence", "back yard" where they could decide who governed, which alliances were joined etc. Even in the 90s when Russias economy was completely in tatters, Yelsin famously asked Clinton to "just give us Europe" with his successor Putin making the restoration of the Soviet Union his declared life's purpose. Not making Russians richer, happier or safer, but rebuilding the empire, which is seen in a historic continuity since the middle ages. This is the "root cause" of the war, and the reason why the West just can't grapple with it. It is an idea so alien and ultimately stupidly archaic when economic cooperation and entaglement has proven to make everyone better off in Europe. Much of the West still somehow hopes this is some kind of misunderstanding or matter of negotiation. But Ukraine, the Baltics and Eastern Europe as a whole simply refuse to acknowledge Russian hegemony and the only way Russia will accept this, is if it has no other choice.