I think a better argument is that Russia is holding a few more cards here than we do. If we want to get petty, they have explosives planted in a nuclear reactor that they could just blow up.

If we want to go in and kick their asses, we risk global war.

There's a lot of reasons that this is bad, but there are a lot of really smart people working on these problems.

"What's the difference between us and them" not only is an emotional appeal, it dehumanizes them, which weirdly makes your argument the same as theirs.