@Loren Pechtel I have heard that Ukrainians tend to object to their country being called "the Ukraine," though don't quote me on that. I'm not sure how widely Ukrainians agree with that sentiment.
Personally, I think that Putin has sort of painted himself into a corner. His support, among his own people, is based on a myth he has promulgated, to his people, that he has made Russia into an invincible race of ultra-muscular supermen or something, however he talks about it, and Europe and America, with their democracy and liberalism, have become a bunch of decadent sissies. However, he has not attacked, up until this point, because if NATO forces march in and proceed to black his eye for him, then his illusion will start to break down. Essentially, he is doing the same thing as North Korea's dictators.
However, he is also hopeful that Europe and the US will become complacent enough, in this knowledge, that they will easily let Ukraine go, so he can roll his tanks into a politically divided Ukraine. What he has been trying to do is create areas in Ukraine where his tanks will be greeted with cheering crowds, so he can present it to his own people as evidence of a broader sentiment in Ukraine. He wants to do essentially the same thing to the whole of Ukraine as he did in Crimea, create a sort of sham vote and feed his people and his international supporters a narrative that Ukraine had welcomed him as some sort of a "great liberator" and rescued them from the teeth of a "greedy and expansionist EU."
Therefore, he has left us with basically no choice except to take a strong stance against him and make sure that it would be expensive for him to attempt an invasion. That way, he can continue beating his chest and keeping his people convinced that only his big, heroic Russian superman muscles are the only thing in the world that are stopping the greedy and expansionist European Union from beating up poor, persecuted Russia.
He would rather have NATO on his doorstep than fight a full-fledged war, but he would love to roll some tanks into Ukraine and say "We're here as your great liberators," and have the EU roll over like a dog.
Therefore, there is no way out of this without there being a very real possibility that we actually would unite and lob one right into the men's room at the Kremlin. Without Europe making a show of willingness to protect Ukraine from invasion, pro-EU politicians in Ukraine are at risk of losing the argument that the EU and NATO are going to be there for them.
There is a way out of escalating it into a war but not without making war appear to be inevitable.
Name of Ukraine - also mentions which preposition to use when saying "in Ukraine" in a Slavic language: either v or na.