Sam Lowry said:Right. Kyiv and Odesa will be if we keep this going.sombear said:Wait, what 4 are you talking about then?Sam Lowry said:Donbas = two provinces.sombear said:But the Russians rejected that approach publicly in the first days of April. "Among our non-negotiable demands," Medinsky later recalled, "were the recognition of Russian sovereignty over Crimea [and] the recognition of the independence of the Donbass republics." There was no prospect that Ukraine could have kept its eastern territories by agreeing to neutrality.Sam Lowry said:No. See Istanbul and Minsk, among others.sombear said:He's demanded 4 from the start.Sam Lowry said:You don't think Russia keeping four provinces is worse than two? That's interesting.sombear said:His offers have not gotten worse.Sam Lowry said:He's made half a dozen offers, and each one is worse than the last. That is not a sign of feeling pain.FLBear5630 said:Sam Lowry said:Which we're not doing, at least not on our terms. These attacks aren't changing anything on the battlefield. If they led to a major setback, or even any setback, that might be causing pain. Then you'd have some semblance of a strategy.FLBear5630 said:Sure it is, you have to cause Putin enough pain to bring him to the table.Sam Lowry said:What does that mean? Another year of so-called stalemate? Escalation with NATO troops? Missile strikes on the Kremlin?FLBear5630 said:Keep going obviously.Sam Lowry said:Russia would have to be in a much, much worse position before they'd even talk about Ukraine entering NATO. So that just brings us back to the question of how to get there.FLBear5630 said:Buying time for negotiated Peace that is NOT all Russia's way. This is going to end up with a buffer/DMZ. Ukraine has lost Dombas and Crimea. Ukraine will enter NATO and this is over.Sam Lowry said:
You already know my opinion. I'm asking what you would do. Short of committing American troops to a five or ten-year war with potentially hundreds of thousands killed (if we're lucky and it doesn't go nuclear), how are you going to win?
What we're doing now has no significant effect and isn't a strategy for victory. It's just a way of buying time. The question you need to ask yourself is, buying time for what?
You may find you don't like the answer.
That is the what. And I like it fine. It meets all the requirements and the DMZ keeps Poland and the Baltics happy. Done. Biden is the ******* that is keeping it going, Trump ends it in 3 months.
"Just keep doing something" isn't a plan.
Putin is complaining about targets being hit in Russia and talking about peace, Putin is feeling pain.
Minsk was 15 years ago and wasn't followed anways.
Edit: I got it now. I was including Crimea. You were including Kherson and Zap.
ROFL.