Going forward, if the United States and Western Europe believe that promoting security and freedom in post-Soviet Eastern Europe are in their interests, they need to find the most effective and efficient policy for realizing this objective. This will likely mean accepting that Ukraine and others will not join exclusive alliances with the West or with Russia—such as the Eurasian Union—but rather, will maintain largely equal relations with both. The EU has taken a first step toward this by, for now at least, unilaterally dropping restrictions on imports from Ukraine, thus allowing Kiev to protect domestic industry and continue its existing pattern of trade with Russia. Such arrangements, which give Ukraine and others strong connections with the West without full membership in alliances that exclude Russia, will take time and a serious effort to develop. But the current approach of trying to push the EU and NATO further east will only lead to further conflict while not even being necessary to protect democracy in Eastern Europe. 

Raymond Sontag is an adjunct Senior Fellow at the Center for The National Interest.