It's an opinion article, those always have takes that are much different then the mainstream. For better (like the one here) or for worse (pretty much all of NYTs).
Yeah it’ll be seven years down the line, Russian control of Donbas will have been well established for years, we’ll have monthly stories about how basically all the arms being “aided” to Ukraine are being sold on the black market, and the government will still be throwing billions into that hole insisting that the next counterinsurgence wil be “the one.”