Ukrainian negotiators are now admitting that Russia and Ukraine had a tentative agreement last March and then Ukraine decided to sabotage it because of the pressure from the west. The west is literally the reason the war started and continues today.

Could Russia have continued to try and find a diplomatic solution after a decade of being lied to, perhaps they could've tried longer. However, we now know for a fact that the west and Ukraine never intended to have good faith negotiations.

To sum up, Russia tried to find a peaceful solution for close to a decade. The west refused to play ball. Then Russia did a show of force and brought Ukraine to negotiating table. The west sabotaged negotiations. Now, Russia is fighting a proxy war with NATO in Ukraine because of that.