So what happens next? Russia wins the war... takes Ukraine... and tries to incorporate them into the Russian empire? I just.
Russia wins but the operation it's being too costly in lives and devastating for the public opinion (even in Russia). They need to negotiate a new deal for Ukraine that will be very probably Russia's first condition to avoid this war. That is a demilitarized nation and somehow neutral territory, kind of a Switzerland in Ukraine.
China can't recognize a new Ukrainian government puppet of Russia because they aspire to recover Taiwan. They will pressure Putin to have a peace treaty soon. I don't think this war will go too far.
I've heard the argument of why we should care about Ukraine, the important issue is not Ukraine itself or their people as insensitive it may sound, the important issue is to avoid at any cost a nuclear war in a direct conflict with the NATO as they're looking like assholes right now. Same that the EU. They might want to make something stupid to recover some credibility in the eyes of their voters.
Interesting take.