More neocon garbage in Persuasion. I shouldn't be disappointed at this point but nonetheless I am.

"Their central proposition is that great powers, for the sake of peace, should be allowed to maintain spheres of influence, often amounting to political control, beyond their borders."

Wrong. The central realist proposition is that great powers *have* spheres of influence, whether anyone thinks they should or not. Your gross misunderstanding of this essential point renders the rest of your article void.

"It was transformed by a popular uprising in 2014 against a corrupt and pro-Russian government."

Wow. The US supported a violent coup against the democratically elected government because we didn't like its policies toward Russia. A coup that would not have succeeded without the organized violence of literal Nazis. That vile ghoul Victoria Nuland even got caught on mic picking the next Ukrainian president. I enjoyed your soliloquies about our holy commitment to democracy though. As Carl Schmitt astutely observed, “sovereign is he who decides on the state of exception." And the next Ukrainian government that isn't corrupt will be the first.

"Even massive military aid does not entitle the United States to make life and death decisions for the embattled Ukrainians."

Utter nonsense, to put it politely.