Subject: Re: Let’s See If This Pans Out for Putin
It's the argument that you're advancing that ends up prolonging the war. As long as Russia believes there might come a day when the West gives up on Ukraine, they have incentive to keep the war going.

Taking your post in reverse order. This quote is a gross mischaracterization of what I’ve been telling you in this thread.

Your strategy - if one can call it that - has been in effect since 2022. It isn’t working. At some point Brussels is going to have to wake up to reality:

-The war today amounts to a slow, grinding war of attrition on slow moving front lines
-The Russians are slowly gaining ground
-Ukraine is suffering daily destructive attacks on its civilian infrastructure and population
-Ukrainian morale is low and they are facing manpower shortages

This is the current situation.
Upthread you ruled out additional economic action designed to limit Russia’s ability to fight. So Putin can keep cashing India’s and China’s checks. You also don’t want direct NATO involvement so there’s no possibility of a breakout on the front.

Therefore, you’ve ruled out taking the initiative in ways that allow the west to become a more direct and active participant. Unilaterally you and the Europeans are taking chess pieces off of the table and putting the fight even more on Russia’s terms. Fighting on your enemy’s terms is the best and fastest way to lose.

Your strategy reduces to just feeding in more men and matériel. Pyrrhus of Epirus has nothing on you guys!

The European strategy of ‘just hold on’ was perhaps appropriate in 2022 after the momentum of the initial attack was stopped. But we’re 3 years in now and something else needs to be tried.

There’s no ‘just give up’. Those of us who favor negotiations understand that the status quo is grinding Ukraine into a fine powder.

In any conflict one must look at the larger picture and be willing to listen to the hard truths of the current situation. YOU folks are so wrapped up in your moral crusade - one needs only read your 2nd paragraph - that you’ve lost complete sight of the most important thing here:

Making sure the Ukrainians still have a country when this is all over.