West Coast:
This situation abhors a vacuum and Putin will step in and take advantage. His alliance with Syria and Iran also provides cover for his southern territories. Eliminate your problems far from home and if you can use proxy ground forces even better.
The west is conscious of the body bag factor and too many years of military action pursued by inept politicians and the present bunch give no hope for improvement. Putin like President Xi of China are running rings round the west and the coming together of Russia and China are going to produce big problems for the future.
Remember the Chinese control a very high percentage of the worlds natural resources in particular in Africa and they produce most of the worlds Lithium and own a lot of US debt. Russia controls gas supplies to Europe and winter is coming, just needs to turn the gas off as has happened to the Ukraine and Georgia in the past or demand cash up front.