nations who were occupied by Russia are doing everything they can to ensure Russia doesn't come back, they are running towards the EU and NATO as soon as they could.
As far as avoiding provocation and negotiating goes, Russia invaded a country, changed its reason for invading every 5 minutes and then annexed territory it doesn't own while stating it is at war with the west and intends to carry on into western Europe, if that isn't provocation then I don't know what is and don't believe you can or should negotiate with that.