There was a whole menu of peaceful ways the war in Ukraine could have been prevented. NATO could have kept its promise and not expanded east to Russia’s borders and across its long advertized “brightest of all red lines,” as now CIA Director and then Ambassador to Russia William Buns called Ukraine in 2008. Ukraine could have implemented the Minsk Agreement in 2015, and Germany, France and the US could have provided the necessary pressure and support. The US could have come to the table instead of clearing the table when Russia demanded negotiations over security concerns on December 17, 2021. Instead, all three sides, Russia, Ukraine and the US, chose the military option.
Russia, of course, chose the military option. Feeling they had tried all the diplomatic options and having “come to the point when we have no room to retreat,” Russia chose to introduce the military ultimatum: provide us with “legally binding guarantees” on our security concerns, no NATO membership for Ukraine and no deployment of weapons or troops to Ukraine, or we will respond with “military-technical means.” When the US responded that negotiating NATO expansion to Ukraine was never even on the table, having chosen to introduce the ultimatum, Russia chose the military option.