Most people would probably just cooperate with whichever power won the territory and not be particularly bothered who it was, I would think.
Most people, of course, would cooperate, because the alternative in Putin's Russia is to find yourself in prison thousands of miles away from your family. I strongly suspect they'd be quite bothered - bothered enough to put up an army to resist it, as it turns out.
The Donbas is hardly significantly close to the West.
The Donbas both has deep-water ports on the Sea of Azov, which also has Bulgarian, Greek, Romanian, Turkish and other coasts, and provides a land-bridge from Russia to the occupied territories of Crimea which also have highly developed ports. Although Russia has ports on the Sea of Azov none of them are of such capability, and with that previously narrow coast to blockade it wasn't a viable route of offence - now it is. Tactically and strategically it puts significantly more Russian pressure on the Sea of Azov and, from there, the Black Sea.
Ukraine may have asked to join Nato, and I don't see that as a problem, but Russia did have a problem with it and so for Ukraine to join would escalate tension with Russia.
If Russia wasn't an expansionist territory there wouldn't have been pressure on Ukraine to join NATO in order to bolster its defences. Arrangements between Nato and Ukraine are none of Russia's business so long as Russia stays in, you know, Russia.
If Hungary relies on Russia for fuel, what is wrong with its remaining neutral?
To paraphrase, "For evil to flourish, good men (and Victor Orban) must stand by and do nothing..." Germany relies on Russia for fuel, it has not stood by and done nothing. Bosnia Herzegovina, Moldova, North Macedonia, Latvia, Serbia, Austria, Bulgaria, Finland, Slovakia, Greece and Slovenia all, like Hungary, get in excess of 60% of their gas from Russia, typically - have they stood by?
It's a tough choice to have to make, I don't disagree, but everyone else has chosen a different path to Orban's Hungary - you have to wonder why a racist, misogynist, Christian Nationalist leadership chooses to not oppose Vladimir Putin's invasion of a neighbour and draw your own conclusions. Maybe Victor Orban is a pacifist at heart... maybe. And maybe not.
O.
