If Europe were led by a "Churchill", the NATO forces would storm into Ukraine, crush the Russia army, restablish Ukraine's borders and then negotiate from strength a peace.

Even without full US support, If Putin threatened nuclear war, Chuchill would call his bluff. As France and England have referenced they have nuclear bombs to... over 500 of them. Maybe not enough to kill every Russian, but enough to send Russia back to the stone age.

Putin does not want to be known as the man who extinguished Russia. China would press Putin to accept the peace or lose their support.

Putin is relying on "fear", but in the absence of fear, the Dictator has no clothes. The Russian army barely able to hold its own against Ukraine would be destroyed and take decades to rebuild.

The war in Ukraine exists because NATO lets it exist. Russia and the US promised to protect Ukraine's independence when it gave up its nuclear arsenal. Time to make good on that promise.