Belgium is a buffer state that has a port. Ukraine is a breadbasket with lots of soviet era industry and critical accesses to the Black Sea.
Belgium was a speedbump for the Germans, just a way to get to the French and block off the British. Ukraine is the actual goal.
Both were about an outsider trying to rewrite the terms of system from which they felt excluded. WW1 was loosely states with an empire vs. those without.
Both have involved massive miscalculations on all parts as to how quickly and easily this will be over. Russia thought Ukraine would fold, NATO thought Russia would.
We need to be realistic here. This is bad and could get substantially worse.
Jeffrey Sachs has been shouting about this from the rooftops from day one, but the "Western Bloc" has been ignoring him at their own peril. It is almost as if they want to force a WWIII, nevermind the suffering of the Ukrainians!
There are plenty of Youtube videos of his speeches, a couple;
Jeffrey Sachs: Understanding the Ukraine conflict (minidoc) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiK6DijNLGE
Jeffrey Sachs Warns Europe About Its Dark Future - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqkyulCBcpY
PS: Also see my other comment here - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50148581
leaked assessments from the beginning of the war showed that the CIA thought Ukraine would fall in < 1 year and would lead to an insurgency that would last a decade and bankrupt Russia while still having oodles of warcrimes.
warcrimes are still there but instead the AFU is causing serious infrastructure damage to to the Russians.