Sanctions impose costs on the target taking a course of action. They cannot stop someone taking a course of action if they are determined. So they can't save Ukraine. Over time, however, they can weaken the target and give their immediate rivals an incentive to do something about them. So they might contribute to a change in Russia eventually.
Saying they are all as bad as each other is wrong and damaging. It is wrong because -murderously hypocritical as liberal, capitalist democracies have been on many occasions- they are open to criticism and change, and their leaders share some of the values which lead us to criticize them. Johnson and all around him, for all their faults, are not in the same league as Putin in terms of moral deficiencies.
Saying they're all a bad as each other is damaging because it falsely absolves us from making judgements in particular contexts. In this context, there can be no doubt about who is most responsible for taking a course of action which could lead to the deaths of thousands of people. From our various standpoints, we need to acknowledge this and think about what is to be done.
Times like this put the question posed by anarchists and others about the state and the states system as a source of our problems into sharp relief. Looking at the logic of move and counter move which which have occurred in this crisis and other crises, leads people to thinking there's got to be a better way of organizing ourselves. Such reflections provide little guide as to what to do right now, however. Declaring the game to be stupid and evil, and walking away from the table, leaves the game and the consequences of winning it to those who keep playing.
Speaking pragmatically, Ukraine is probably lost for now. The costs of trying to "save" it far outweigh the benefits of trying to do so. The Baltic states depend on Mr. Putin being deterred by the "tripwire" of NATO forces. They are not enough to stop him. Their job is to die, if he attacks, so he knows how he is raising the stakes. It is time for the great powers of Europe to start taking the task of defending themselves seriously. Macron's and Sholtz's efforts, hailed as sophisticated and nuanced in contrast to the clumsy Anglos, have yielded nothing, have possibly fed Putin's sense that the West can be divided, and have shown how weak European influence is. This is not a problem so long as the US is still doing the heavy lifting. However, Europe can't rely on the US anymore, and its countries should not want to rely on the US. Step up Germany, France and Britain.
