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Thank fuck some leaders aren't going down the "appease the dictator" route. The west has tried for decades to appease Russia, but it doesn't work. Dictators only see our appeasement efforts as weakness.
We tried for so long to welcome them with open arms. We traded with them, we built gas pipelines, we gradually disarmed over the 90s/2000s/2010s. We thought that by opening up to them that our "western values" – vague as that phrase may be – would spread... but we got nowhere. Only taken advantage of. There's no better political figure that embodies this than Merkel, but she was far from being alone in that naïve thinking.
The only way for lasting peace is for a pan-Europan defence committment. Peacekeepers stationed there is a good part of that.
Trump has made clear the US can't always be relied upon, so working closely with EU nations is a good move.
Thank god they dont appease MBS or Netanyahu!