Yeah, I just don't see any reason why the Russians would want it, especially since the peeps in that are are likely to be much less friendly (even in the post Zenensky period.) I don't really fully buy the argument of 'de-nazification' which strikes me as mostly a PR-friendly excuse. The benefits of chasing the Nazis into the West is probably not worth the hassles, costs, and risks, and they would just back-fill when the area is vacated anyway.
I think we will soon see how events will develop in the West of Ukraine, because until the complete liberation of Donbass this is not a paramount issue and there are many interested parties, including Poland, Romania, Hungary and even Moldova. I'm not even sure that the West of Ukraine is now subordinate to Kyiv.
You still do not see it. Putin has been brought into a war that is a trap.
Do you now mean that Russia has become a victim of external manipulation and is not to blame for the invasion of Ukraine? This is something new from you.
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Thanks for recognising that it is an invasion (not a liberation, denazification nor anything else but an invasion - your own words).
- Nothing is happening
- Just an operation
- This is an invasion < ----- you are here
- This is a war between Russia and Ukraine.
- This is a war of aggression by Putin.
- This is a crime.
The topic is called invasion, technically it is an invasion, in fact it is a unique military special operation. Here we are discussing the Russian invasion of Ukraine, this is the military-political aspect of a larger hybrid economic-information war of the entire West against Russia. The economic aspect of the confrontation can be discussed in the economy section of this forum, there is also an interesting story with the European oil embargo following the coal embargo, and a powerful intrigue with paying for gas in rubles to circumvent sanctions. It's the perfect storm.
No, I mean exactly what I wrote: that Putin has been brought into a war that is a trap. He is to blame for the invasion because he decided to invade - he may have decided something else, but he lacks a group of people that can tell him he is wrong and has been fooled into believing he could achieve a quick win. Him and his circle have started something they cannot finish. There are winners in this war, Russia is not one of them.
What nonsense, you draw at least premature conclusions, because the operation continues and seems to be quite successful. I would say that in general, things are going great for Russia. You were right about Dvornikov's tactics - they are very simple and effective. Reconnaissance drones, then the work of artillery and multiple launch rocket systems, then tanks under the cover of infantry and front-line aviation. The tactics of parallel short offensives to minimize the front line, in the Donbass, there is a methodical slow grinding of the fortified positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine with minimal losses and a compact numerical strength. The most combat-ready units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the east have already been destroyed, taken prisoner or bled after two months of continuous fighting, and freshly mobilized reservists come to the eastern front as cannon fodder and I think the Ukrainians who want to die there will soon run out. Russia, the LPR and the DPR are slowly and methodically pressing from the east, and apparently soon they will push through the fortified areas of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Donbass. What happens next is interesting to me, there are many interested actors and many options for the development of events, and the chances for Russia seem favorable to me.
A peace treaty? Are Ukraine and Russia at war then? (I think they are, do you?)
Irony apart, there isn't anything like a full defeat, unconditional or conditional or any type of surrender. This is a bear trap and a nasty one.
You demand unconditional surrender from Ukraine while you argue they are not willing to negotiate. I am not sure you what type of deals have you closed in your life - usually someone concedes something and the other concedes as well so everyone is slightly unhappy with the result. In this case, by waging war, I can tell you that both sides are going to be worse off. There is no way the US and Europe are going to let Russia come better-off this war and there is no way Ukraine is going to forget. Needless to say that all the dead civilians and soldiers are not better off.
Of course, I would also prefer a quick and bloodless operation, without unnecessary casualties, destruction and bloodshed. Unfortunately, for this, Ukraine must capitulate, because Russia's policy towards Nazism is characterized by zero tolerance. Russia denounces Nazism and has strong evidence of widespread Nazism in Ukraine. There are serious documentary claims about the work of bio-laboratories in Ukraine. The contents of the bunker near Azovstal have not yet been fully disclosed, but the Azov fighters are already behaving there openly like terrorists, trying to exchange hostages for food by live weight. According to the results of the operation, there will be a court like Nuremberg 2, all those responsible will be punished. The fate of the territories of Ukraine liberated from Nazism will be decided by referendums of local residents following the Kosovo precedent. Everyone will again live a peaceful, calm life, as befits civilized Europeans.
But the biggest problem Putin will now face is not Ukraine. Finland, Sweden and Ukraine are certainly now almost forced to join NATO. Europe will take all steps to reduce or remove energy trading with Russia. Congratulations for your victory.
Scandinavians are much more adequate than Ukrainians and for the most part do not experience Russophobia. There are problems with the adequacy of politicians with a vagina who have fallen under the spell of the masculine image of NATO and make incomprehensible initiatives from which the people of Finland and Sweden are actively perplexed. So the entry of Finland and Sweden into NATO is still in question, in Finland there are debates in parliament and it seems that common sense is ready to prevail there.
Ukrainian people will pay a high price for freedom - it should have been much easier, if Russia had a decent leadership.
You can always do something better, it turns out as it turns out. It’s hard for me to blame Putin for something, it seems that his tactics are quite safe for the inhabitants of Russia, and his strategy is fully consistent with the interests of Russia as a sovereign state. I am sorry that Putin's actions do not meet your expectations and if they infringe on the anti-Russian interests of Ukraine. Ukraine is free to act as a sovereign state, but Russia is also free to respond to existential threats against itself.