I don't know enough about the Ukranian sitchy-ation to judge that article either way. What's your reading?
Ukraine is a false conglomeration of people and geographical entities cobbled together by Stalin. Western parts are strongly anti-Russian, and some areas (Lviv iirc) are former Polish and just generally hate and fear Russia from the Holodomor etc. The Eastern Oblasts (ukie equivalent of states in America) are strongly Russian in ethnicity and social outlook, as Stalin imported Soviet settlers after he slaughtered or force migrated millions of the natives (including Tatars and Cossacks). So it's an unstable region that has no real business as a country, which isn't that uncommon in the way Europe was divided wholesale.
Ukraine is also beyond vital to Russian interests. Putin would surrender Moscow about the same time he'd let Ukraine (for whatever value of the word you assign) escape his sphere of influence. It's an excellent buffer against the invasion the Russkies believe is always imminent (after Napoleon/Hitler/Sino-Russian wars I don't blame them), it controls the petroleum pipelines to Europe that are all that support them economically, it is the only warm water port for the Black Sea fleet etc. Push came to shove I honestly think they would launch nukes rather than allow the ukies to join NATO.
The writer at Reason posited that this was a loss for Putin, because his puppet fed.gov was deposed. While that's not ideal, Vlad the impaler has conducted a pretty thorough lesson in how to do realpolitik, and made both the US and Eu look like bumbling and impotent losers. He first established a power disparity over the US by pantsing Obama over the Syria mess. He waited until a deal with the EU was all but official then stopped it to demonstrate his power in the region. When the western oblasts got pissy about that, he strolled into the ethnically Russian eastern parts to a hero's welcome. not only does he have the territory he needs now, he did it in such a way as to use Obama's sternly worded letter telling him to not as toilet paper. It's been a clear lesson that the former KGB officer is playing chess and Obama and the EU are eating paste and struggling to remember if they're the X's or the O's in their checkers match. I mean, he even published an Op-Ed in the water carrying, totally in the tank for O NY m-fing Times scolding Obama as an un-Christian war monger! The only way he could've established dominance more is if he'd waited for Obama to bow when they met and then pissed on him.
At this point, anything other than a full scale invasion of a NATO country will be met with nothing more than a series of increasingly sternly worded letters from the US and some posturing from the EU. We're drawing down a military that's already focused far too exclusively on COIN and asymmetric warfare because no one seems to think that having to fight an honest to goodness other country is possible. The EU has no real military capability, and if they start anything Russia will turn off the gas next winter and every cold weather EU country will have rioting in the streets that make the Maidan look like a love in after Grandma freezes to death.
