Indeed. Geopolitics is so convoluted. I can see good reasons for standing stronger and not standing stronger at that time. Decision makers have to make tough calls---just like coaches at football games.

Despite the refusal of outright military help, it seemed someone was training the Ukrainian military in western ways.

In February 2022, the media were all astounded of the kilometers of Russian military vehicles. I saw sitting ducks, and knocking out one duck out of 20 was going to cause havoc to that parade. Which is what happened. Western military experts had something to do with that.