Agreed, the worst outcome would be a Minsk-style deal that gives Russia some breadcrumbs, but which allows the West to further foster Nazism in Eastern Europe, and allows them to try again a decade down the line.
Not properly wrapping this conflict up would be a mistake.
The best part of being an academic yourself is that you stop seeing other academics as being automatically superior to people who could not enjoy their level of education.
You can get away with a lot of bullshit in academia.