“Ukrainian or the Russian government begs for peace. This can no longer be solved by signing a piece of paper. Who first?”
The Russians have been begging for negotiations for months now. They want out of this war.
The problem is they are still refusing to leave Crimea. Ukraine will need to take the peninsula and then Russia will come to reality and drop its demands.
“Ukraine will need to take the peninsula and then Russia will come to reality and drop its demands.”
I will accept your statement as your belief. I don’t mean this to be insulting, but even this fantasy won’t end the war. If the Russian army were to withdraw tomorrow, do you think that the Russian people would just shrug it off? Of course not.
And by the same token, if the current Ukrainian government were to accept the loss of territory and sue for peace, the Ukrainian military would likely seize power to prevent it.
So neither side accepts the other side’s conditions for peace.
It’s my simplistic view that we are at the point the the game of Risk! where one side just cashed in their cards and played out their hand. Now, the other side is cashing in for even more armies and another round of conquest.
Again, a simplistic analogy, but I’m asking - after the coming winter campaign from the Russian side, what will Ukraine have left to fight with?
And fight over? What will be left?
My prediction. Ukraine will seize Crimea in the spring. Putin falls from power (his regime will not survive the loss of Crimea).