>no choice but to escalate and invade Eastern Europe.
They can barely hold on to Eastern Ukraine, them taking the entirety of Ukraine is not likely at all given that they have had to slog for many years just to take and hold one small part of the country.
If they can’t even take all of Ukraine, I don’t think it’s very likely they try to attack any more of Europe.
Or one could look it the the other way around: the 50 countries, more or less, (Europe + US), that fight with the hands of Ukraine, as proxies, still haven't been able to defeat ONE Russia.
And despite of 23k of sanctions they've imposed on Russia, which is the absolute record by a looooooong margin on its own.
They can barely hold on to Eastern Ukraine, them taking the entirety of Ukraine is not likely at all given that they have had to slog for many years just to take and hold one small part of the country.
If they can’t even take all of Ukraine, I don’t think it’s very likely they try to attack any more of Europe.