A war isn't decided until the fighting stops.

To pretend otherwise is either delusional or because you take sides.

Your pick.

Well, I appreciate that you are trying very hard to make your case, and unfortunately I am too pressed for time to answer more fully, but I just can't let go of the "encircling" argument.

For crying out loud, Russia is the largest country by landmass in the world. Take a look at a map and tell me how the hell you are supposed to ever "encircle" this?!

Also you may want to ask yourself why all those neighbours of Russia scrambled to get under NATO's protection.

To the extend that Russia's NATO fears are real it borders on paranoia. Article 5 requires a member country to be attacked first. The entire structure is geared towards defense. I.e. if a NATO member like Poland wanted to help Ukraine and actively assist Ukraine with troops they'd be on their own, as there is no mechanism to compel other NATO member to come to their aid without invoking Article 5.

What's clear is that you are supporting an aggressive land grab by Russia. One that already started in 2014 with Crimea - despite Russia having signed treaties that guaranteed Ukraine's sovereignty and borders.

This is not complicated.

It happens
https://www.wsj.com/video/seri...

In practice they will probably have to use several drones on rotation to guide someone out.

Russian officers don't like it.

https://www.kyivpost.com/post/...

As others pointed out it all hinges on how you define winning.

From my vantage point Ukraine fights for its very survival as a sovereign nation. This is also the reason why they have no choice but to keep on fighting no matter what the Western world does.

If in the end Ukraine can maintain its nationhood the war efforts will have paid off. Obviously the more territory it can hold the better, but this is secondary to the survival of the nation.

Ukraine already agreed to an unconditional cease fire along the current line of contact months ago. Russia is the side who doesn't want that. Just like they started the war, they still don't want to end it. You assign to Ukraine an agency it doesn't have. It cannot end the war unilaterally and the terms the Russians want to dictate are a complete surrender that'll reduce Ukraine to a vassal state.

Aren't you a ray of sunshine.

Russia labored under the assumption that they only had to worry about the line of contact in the East, and left the rest of the border relatively unguarded. The Kursk offensive shattered this illusion and now requires Russia to exert much more resources to prevent future incursions.

And BTW the idea that Ukraine wants to destroy Russia is absolutely ludicrous. They didn't start the war and the goal is to kick Russia out of Ukraine and reestablish the borders that Russia signed on to respect in more than one binding treaty.

Beats me why you would adopt such absurd positions if you weren't in fact Russian.

Mearsheimer is well past his use-by date. A fossil stuck in Cold War thinking.

Russia had NATO at their border for twenty years when the Baltic republics joined. A ballistic missile can reach Moscow from there as quickly as from Ukraine and get much faster to Saint Petersburg.

Also Putin is not a complete idiot, and only a complete idiot would have not foreseen that Finland will join NATO after a full on Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Clearly it was never about NATO.

It's about Russia not accepting a sovereign Ukraine. Russia can only accept a Ukraine that is a fully controlled vassal. If that is not in the cards it needs to be subjugated. Internally the Kremlin makes no qualms about this motive. The NATO smokescreen is for fools like you.

Five Eyes is so last century.

What Western country will at this point still share critical intelligence with DC?

That's some impressive copium.

All you have is infantile both siding when one side started it and has a clear record of targeting hospitals and civilians - especially kids - unforgotten the targeted attack on the theater in Mariupol.

You lack any moral compass.

https://www.amnesty.org/en/lat...

You are just spouting Russian propaganda verbatim.

Pretty much everything you are writing is a blatant lie.

Yanukovych could have served out his term and accept responsibility for his crimes and corruption, but he rather decided to flee to Moscow. At which point the Ukrainian parliament had no other choice as to impeach him. BTW almost all members of Yanukovych own party voted for his impeachment as well.

The "civil war" was instigated by the Kremlin, pretending that Russian speakers are automatically "ethnic Russians". There is no such thing they are all Slavs and the Soviet Union force Russification an all its territories. So even Zelensky's first language is Russian.

The fact that Russian troops were active in Eastern Ukraine in 2014 is overwhelming, as well as the evidence that Russia is responisible for the downing of MH17.

https://www.icao.int/Newsroom/...

That is why the EU price cap is so important.

China and India get a nice deal but Russia gets significant less revenue, while the world oil marker remains well supplied keeping our gas prices in check.

And natural gas export mostly relies on pipelines and they have none that go to India or China. And interestingly the latter does not seem to be terribly interested in building one. Russia's natural gas exports cratered.

Russia had NATO at their border for twenty years when the Baltic republics joined. A ballistic missile can reach Moscow from there as quickly as from Ukraine and get much faster to Saint Petersburg.

Also Putin is not a complete idiot, and only a complete idiot would have not foreseen that Finland will join NATO after a full on Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Clearly it was never about NATO.

By listening to what the Kremlin spouts rather than analyzing what they do, it is you, my friend. who falls for propaganda.

Due to the Russian armies corruption and culture of "zeroing own" the kill ratio at this point will be 5:1 or better.

https://en.zona.media/article/...

The attacker always suffers more loses against a well entrenched defending force, but Russia's "meat assaults" are taking this to an entire new, absurd level.

Vatniks pretended that "Russia already won" for the entirety of this war. It's getting old.