MrRelevant:
"You have an opportunity to end the beating but insist on continuing to keep taking it because your corner keeps telling you “youre winning”." So, your corner being the pro-Russia side?
Well, comrade, then here's your problem:
- No former USSR republic, now independent since 1991, wants to rejoin mad-Vlad the Invader's new Russian Empire.
- All 15 former Soviet Republics joined NATO (Latvia, Lithuania & Estonia -- 2004) or NATO's Partnership for Peace (PfP) (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Belarus & Russia -- 1994).
- All but Russia and Belarus remain NATO PfP members in good standing.
But Belarus has suffered under the one-man rule of Annexed Lukashenko since 1994, and has not had a free & fair election since.
That makes any Belarus expressions of unity with "mother Russia" highly dubious & illegitimate. - None wants to return into the Belly of the Bear in Vlad's new Russian Empire.
- All seven of Russia's former Warsaw Pact client states joined NATO (Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland & Romania ).
- None of them wants to return under Russian authority.
So, Ukraine is the front line of resistance against Russian imperialism.
If the West loses in Ukraine, it will make resistance that much more difficult in whichever countries Russia decides to invade next.
As for who is winning:
- Russians have made no significant advances since giving up half their gains in mid-2022 -- that despite losses of over 1 million Russian casualties and over 100,000 Russian military vehicles and major weapons systems.
- In the meantime, two new countries (Finland & Sweden) have joined NATO and the Europeans have greatly stepped into the breach to backfill Ukraine's equipment and other losses.
- Ukrainians have held out for 3-1/2 years against overwhelming Russian numbers and insane Russian "meat wave" assaults, and they think they can continue indefinitely.
Is that "winning"?
- Well, so long as they still have a country to live and fight for, Ukrainians are winning their freedom and independence from the Russian Bear.
- Remember, Ukraine's struggles began some 800 years ago and this is their best chance ever to come out fully free and a member of Europe, rather than being destroyed by The Bear's Russkiy Mir.
Finally, Ukrainians are helping to redefine what the very word "European" even means, and I think that's really winning, big time.
Of course, everyone hopes Pres. Trump can negotiate peace in Ukraine.
But, judging by historical examples like Korea and Vietnam, such negotiations can take a very long time, and in the meantime, fighting goes on.