Much as I think Russia should suffer for mounting an invasion into another country (and, no, there is no excuse for the invasion), this might be the most workable solution.
Russia‘s Vladimir Putin is ready to halt the war in Ukraine if a negotiated ceasefire that recognises the current battlefield lines can be agreed, Russian sources claim.
Three of the sources, familiar with discussions in Putin’s entourage, told Reuters the veteran Russian leader had expressed frustration to a small group of advisers about what he views as Western-backed attempts to stymie negotiations and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky‘s decision to rule out talks.
It’s a least worst solution. Continuing to send men into the meatgrinder isn’t sustainable in the long term, and if Trump wins in November, expect him to cut the funding to Ukraine’s war effort. I also suspect that if he was to broker a deal, it would look a lot like this. Not ideal, but the slaughter needs to stop. Sometimes, the least worst solution is the only viable one. I feel that this is one of those occasions.
I think that you are probably right even though Putin will end up being rewarded for his criminal actions. Hopefully it will turn out to be a pyrrhic victory.
My problem is that your headline is the title of an old Fleetwood Mac song that I now have stuck in my head.
Oh well,
On a lighter note, if The Chain binds Rhiannon to her Dreams of Never Going Back Again to a life as a Gypsy, will she tell Little Lies? I Don’t Want to Know. But I Need You So Bad that I’m hoping you will Say You Love Me on Monday Morning…..
They made so many songs I could go on forever.
Please don’t.
I seem to remember some bloke waving a piece of paper and saying, “Peace for our time.” Can anyone recall what happened after that?
I know. However, I see no obvious way to finish this satisfactorily short of all out war between Russia and its allies and NATO.
The idea Putin would honour any agreement is beyond belief.
I didn’t say anything about trusting him to honour anything. Given that the USA will cut off the funding sooner or later – sooner if Trump wins in November – and Ukraine is running short of manpower, the war of attrition will go in Russia’s favour. No one wants to kick off WWIII by putting boots on the ground to supplement the Ukrainian army, this is really the least worst option. A pause – if that is all it is – will give them time to regroup at least and stop the killing.
Unless there’s something I’ve missed, but I’m damned if I can see it. It will take a complete regime change in the Kremlin to reverse Russia’s expansionist policy and I don’t see removing Putin alone doing that.
So, take this and hope for some sort of peace or NATO goes in and kicks it all off big time. Had there not been the nuclear threat, this might already have happened.
Perry
Obviously you don’t have the ability (at least I hope not) to shut down any comments you perceive as ‘Pro- Russian’ on this site (unlike on Samizdata) But what is your alternative. Economic pressure seems to have failed totally. The war is basically lost and if we keep going the Ukrainians are likely to lose more territory. We are now practising drills with broomsticks and have squandered billions in a pursuit of a vainglorious attempt to achieve – well I don’t know what the goal was as whenever I raised it people like yourself blocked off the comments or just used the term ‘Putinite troll’. Believe it or not I’m no great fan of the Russian regime but to defeat it would need far more resources and a far more coherent strategy than has ever been offered. Time to call for a ceasefire and at least try and devise a longer term strategy.
Given that Ripper has posted some pretty vigorous pro Russian stuff here, despite my disagreement with his stance, no.