NATO's weird war in Ukraine

For the first two years of fighting in Ukraine, it was common for the Western media to refer to "Vladimir Putin's weird war in Ukraine". The idea was, that Russia was just a third world country anyway, so, how could he possibly expect to win against a large nation -- the second largest in Europe -- being funded with NATO weaponry? As it's become clear that Ukraine can't possibly advance an inch against Russian defenses, and that Russia is steadily absorbing and colonizing all of Ukraine, while advancing steadily against the best weaponry NATO has, our perspective has, of course, shifted a bit here. Now, it's becoming a bit unclear what NATO has in mind, in trying to defeat Russia in a territory it has mostly controlled for centuries, and in which the population is largely sympathetic to Russia. So, we see Europe gradually trying to escalate the situation further. We see French "military advisers" being sent to Ukraine. We see the Baltics and Poland talking about sending their military forces into Ukraine independently of NATO. We see France and Germany encouraging Ukraine to use their missiles to attack Russian targets in Russia, at the risk of major retaliation from Russia against their own civilian populations. So, what exactly is going on here? What does Europe really have in mind? What does NATO really have in mind? Up to a point, this all looks like just an enormous pissing contest on an international scale, at least from NATO's perspective. NATO wants to prove that it cannot be "pushed around", so, rather than simply letting the situation resolve itself peacefully, as it probably would have done if Russia had just been permitted to remove President Zelensky and put a pro-Russian government in place in Kiev, NATO feels the need to respond to each succeeding Russian success with further escalation, no matter how much damage this does to Ukraine, and, to NATO itself. So far NATO has wasted some 400 billion dollars in Ukraine, and, the only consequences are that Russia is colonizing much of Ukraine systematically, and that the Russian economy is stronger than it has ever been before. Apparently, NATO cannot grasp that its day is done, and, that it no longer can control, or even particularly even impress the world. NATO is flailing around, rather like Britain and France during the Suez Crisis, trying to prove that it is still a "Great Power", trying to assert its dominance over world affairs, when, in reality, NATO is just a joke by this time. I suppose, at some point, NATO nations will grasp that they no longer have much in common at all, and, that they are more of a threat to themselves, than Russia is. Until then, the people of Ukraine will have to pay the price of NATO arrogance and stupidity and greed.