Are the ultra nationalists controlling the Ukrainian push back against the pro-Russians? If they are, can they be cowed into a political surrender which is what Putin is looking for here? The Ukrainian forces are not heavily armed and Putin could definitely turn up the heat by supplying some anti-tank weapons to the pro Russian forces - will he? A few Russian attack helos would definitely bring the Ukrainian push back to a halt - but I don't see Putin wanting to escalate like that yet. I'm guessing he likes the role the Ukraine far right is playing here, serves his purposes well, and with Germany now pushing hard for new talks in Geneva, Putin will wait to see what those talks reveal about who's really calling the shots in Kiev and whether a political compromise [the Russians call this capitulation 'federation'] can be forced from them - if not, expect the entry of anti-tank weapons and possibly the introduction of 'legitimate' Russian troops - armor, attack helos - the Ukrainian forces currently trying to surround and take back eastern towns are not robust and would be quickly wiped out by a swarm of KA-50s - and if it comes to that my guess is Kiev, under extreme pressure from the EU, will have no choice but to compromise - unless the ultranationalists push the gonzo button and then this thing heads in a direction that gets much harder to predict.
It's difficult to know how delusional the US/EU are but I feel [hope] they must realize the sanctions they're proposing are useless, mean nothing to Putin when measured against what he'd lose by surrendering to them - and with the amount of Russian money flowing through the EU banking system any attempt to get tougher could hurt the EU as much as it might hurt Russia - and to what end since Putin will not, cannot be swayed by such. The only way maybe to get at Putin would be to get the oligarchs to turn on him by hurting them sufficiently with sanctions and sundry penalties - but if that approach had potential I'm guessing the oligarchs would already be sending out signals, either deliberately or by insinuation, about the efficacy of it - if they were willing to sacrifice Putin seems to me they'd be letting that be known before too much damage is done, and don't see much evidence of that happening.
It's difficult to know how delusional the US/EU are but I feel [hope] they must realize the sanctions they're proposing are useless, mean nothing to Putin when measured against what he'd lose by surrendering to them - and with the amount of Russian money flowing through the EU banking system any attempt to get tougher could hurt the EU as much as it might hurt Russia - and to what end since Putin will not, cannot be swayed by such. The only way maybe to get at Putin would be to get the oligarchs to turn on him by hurting them sufficiently with sanctions and sundry penalties - but if that approach had potential I'm guessing the oligarchs would already be sending out signals, either deliberately or by insinuation, about the efficacy of it - if they were willing to sacrifice Putin seems to me they'd be letting that be known before too much damage is done, and don't see much evidence of that happening.