Russia lost when they didn’t win in less than two weeks.
Ukraine wins even if they stalemate the Russians as that denies them the victory they need to intimidate their next victim.
As it stands their likely next victim Kazakhstan is preparing to fight back just in case Russia attacks.
Ukraine wins even if they stalemate the Russians as that denies them the victory they need to intimidate their next victim.
Nope, that's upside down.
Russia won as soon as they captured the Russian-speaking districts in east Ukraine and installed layers of defense around them. Russia never staged an invasion of the magnitude required to conquer all of Ukraine, their objective was limited to east Ukraine.
In March of 2022 Zelensky and Russia had negotiated an armistice to stop the fighting while final terms were negotiated. But Biden and Boris Johnson intervened and pressured Zelensky to back out, promising him the assistance he would need to defeat the Russians and go down in history as the Hero of Ukraine.
All involved miscalculated the stamina of the Russian military. Biden and Johnson no doubt told Zelensky the Russians would fold up like cardboard when faced with a modern military using high-tech weapons.
Now here we are, after hundreds of thousands of deaths and immense suffering and destruction, with no prospect whatever of pushing the Russians out of Ukraine or getting a better deal than was available in March of 2022.
The Russians are holding the parts of Ukraine they want. That is a win for them and probably the death blow to NATO and the EU, both of which have proven helpless against the Russians even with US backing.