Ukraine’s starting point is to maintain border sovereignty.
So I doubt that they will give up Donbas.
Maybe Crimea.
nah, evacuating before the invasion would have been a terrible symbol that he thought they would lose. it would have had a terrible effect on the morale of the defenders and could have led to more russian gains sooner.
It will be very interesting if Russia truly abandons its ambitions in Kyiv and tries to bring most of its forces to the Donbas region. I wonder how hard the Ukrainians would fight for it.
Agreed for not evacuating before hand… but there was no plan or resources in place to evacute when hostilities started.
You also saw a lack of planning at the border where there were days long lines to cross into Poland while Poland was waving everyone in.
It was a screw up on Zelenskyy’s behalf… but a nit pick to be sure.
I think that if they see blood in the water they are going for it.
Ukraine has exposed Russia for the paper tiger that it is.
No one saw this coming.
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No more “de-nazification” and “de-militarization”. And no more Russian puppet regime in Kyiv. They lost.
Only to countries not in NATO…
You are probably right. A Finnish type neutrality might work however.
Every day it continues the chance of a wmd in some shape or form happening increases. The off ramp is so he can go home with his head held high not because we want that or that he deserves it but de-escalate to avoid a nuclear war.
Last thing anyone needs is for Putin to go full on insane kamikaze with nukes. Think of it as a participation trophy 
That’s why no other country needs to get these things I can only imagine the fun a nuclear armed Iran will be.
I would agree that on some level just ending it now with the Donbas and Crimea in Putin’s hands with Ukraine forever after protected by Europe (not neutral) would be a compromise that would stave off really grave possibilities.
But the Ukrainians aren’t gonna do that. They are gonna keep going at the Russians in the East as well.
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they won’t like it, but this is really the only road to any lasting peace. maybe they can get it done for less, but i don’t think it likely.
i read today that russia is pulling reenforcements from georgia. it would be a great time for our intel guys to stir georgia back up.
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not.
5c
One lesson should be the only thing to worry about Russia is nukes. Ukraine doesn’t even rank in the top 30 militaries. If they can’t take them down they sure as hell ain’t taking Europe in a ground war.
Nukes is literally all that Russia has to threaten with unfortunately it is a big thing. There ground forces suck which why some of the top military brass are worried a lot more with China than Russia. Russia ran out of food for their military if that tells us anything.
is that why finland is now talking about nato membership?
We’ll see. If anything we’ve seen in the last month, the Ukrainians are tenacious, strategic, smart and lethal to Russian forces.
If they are quite successful in the Donbas against Russia, then Putin will be left with no great options except full retreat or escalate.
That sounds good but it’s not really where we want him to be. Those are the choices we want to leave him with.
Next week will be very interesting. What happens to those ten thousand (?) Russian soldiers near Kyiv with all their equipment?
It sounds like they are almost encircled by Ukrainian forces.
Fight to the last man? Desperately try to retreat and escape without most of their vehicles? Surrender?
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Some cities hardily any damage or slight then other places look like Hiroshima. Some of the western places the worst they had to deal with was the warning sirens. If one lived in Ukraine you would want to be in West Ukraine.
The lights are still on. It’s been a month.
Which probably helps Russia tell its tale that the Donbass is all it was after all along.
