Is anyone across the end game for Ukraine? Like is it just keep going under there's no more Ukrainians, or Ukraine is a pile of rubble, or Putin has a stroke, or the like?
The US seems to be trying for "Ukraine pushes the russians out, but not so hard that Russia collapses (because a collapse of a nuclear-armed state is a bit of an existential risk)", which may or may not be possible.
There seem to be some sort of political deadlock and any talk about diplomacy seem to be labeled as treason or being a tool for Mr. P.
I guess trench warfare has this 'just one more glorious offensive' lure.
And I never though war would be so glorified like the one in Ukraine. But then again I didn't think liberals would cheer closing the border for men and throwing them into trenches, arming far right militias, banning media and opposition parties either. Lets call it a wakeup call...
I feel like a lot of wars are like that, letting bullets fly until one side is out of bullets or bodies to absorb those bullets. Russia might also run out of bodies, Putin was already offering money to Syrians; or the sanctions might finally work and their economy goes down. But India and China are still buying their oil, China might probably even be their sugar daddy and provide Russia with loans. Ironic when Putin said he started the war to make sure NATO stays away and not conquer Russia, but it ends up with Russia a vassal state of Beijing.
The end game is to re-conquer the politically sensitive Crimea. When they've done that, they tell Putin that they're ready to let him keep some of eastern Ukraine if he withdraws his forces from everywhere else.
"Some" could be "none", depending on their evaluation of the situation at the time. In the maximal case, they take back all of their conquered territory.
Whether Putin will accept that is anybody's guess. It is entirely possible he will reject it and continue to fight to the last Russian male and/or his stroke.
