You're sounding a bit like Zelensky. He wants Ukraine's protection guaranteed. The only way to guarantee that is for the US to be willing to respond to Russian aggression militarily. NOT gonna happen, nor should it.
BUT, you can create a really strong deterrent by giving us a mineral mining deal that in part pays us back for the aid we've given Ukraine, but strategically places US civilians and interests in Ukraine such that a stray missile from Russia killing a US citizen might prompt a military response by the US. We KNOW Russia doesn't want that.
Trump and Putin want nothing to do with a a conflict with each other. That's a good thing. To ensure that, they ironically have to align against Zelensky to ensure that.
