Sure, I've heard this point of view. Roger Waters, for instance. Disappointing. Ghouls running US foreign policy, it's perhaps an apt metaphor. But Ghoul isn't a metaphor any more in Russia.. There are so many examples like this of pure ghoulism that your implication that some sort of appeasement was possible, well, it's laughable.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ukraine/comments/ui216j/the_ukrainian_army_released_a_tapped_phone_call/