[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Putin cannot afford to agree to the status quo ante. If he does, he is effectively a dead man. He has cost both Russia and Ukraine enormous harm, both in and treasure. Putin cannot afford to end this war without without some token gains.

Most of the people calling for a ceasefire, only suggest terms that make Russia's paltry gains permanent. This will only lead to further aggression in the future.

Hitler did not stop with the Sudetenland.

Ukraine can never be secure if Russia can attack and rob them without consequence.

[adorno]

Ukraine can never be secure if Russia can attack and rob them without consequence.

True, but, it's gonna be a lot costlier to Russia and Ukraine. Even if Russia eventually 'wins' (which is unthinkable and will never happen), Putin will be the ultimate loser, with the Russian people, and mostly with those he sacrificed for his personal ambitions.

[ConservativeMind]

Ukraine has borders it cannot protect. It didn't, years ago, either, when Russia first came in and Ukraine's NAZIs fought.

Ukraine should have made some compromise, but greatly built up defenses. It did neither, and it seems a huge number of Ukraine's men are hiding out and not willing to fight.

Russia has had consequences, and lost a chunk of it own men, but a lot of other stuff has worked to its advantage.

We have no treaty to protect Ukraine, only promises to talk with Russia if there were unsolvable conflicts. Ukraine needed to step up or give up.

[Chad C. Mulligan]

Putin cannot afford to agree to the status quo ante. If he does, he is effectively a dead man.

So true. After 1991 Moscow utterly failed to establish what historian Timothy Snyder calls a "succession principle". Putin cannot even resign, because it'll be a political melee when he goes, like what happened after Lenin died.

[DesertRhino]

“Hitler did not stop with the Sudetenland.”

You have it backwards. Putin learned the lesson of Munich. And expansionist aggressive socialist entity cannot be appeased. NATO expansion into Ukraine was an actual redline.
Rather than acting like Chamberlin and trying to appease NATO, Putin stopped them. He tried to talk, but could see there was no appeasing NATO and their Nazi minions.

[Jumper]

NATO didn’t stop with Bosnia, Lydia, Iraq, and right thru to Ukraine.