Russia-Ukraine War (continuing)

No, I don't accept either. But I think an imperfect peace in Ukraine, even if it means a loss of land, is better than a forever war that will absolutely result in the eventual loss of all of the country.

Wars have always ended. Like always. Now people seem to think they shouldn't end.

I don't think it's better to continue a war now in case there is a war in the future.

Same question to you: What's to stop Putin starting future wars or invasions?

"Him being shown to have lost the war"

Sounds great, I agree. But how can that happen?

"History has shown that appeasing dictators doesn't work."

The world largely not being at war would suggest that ending wars works.

At some point, people have to look at Ukraine in isolation as something that needs to be ended, rather than deciding it must be fought in order to defeat Putin. That just dooms it to another decade of war.

It's ok to be pro-peace even if it means some loss.

I'm disgusted at the lack of support from Europe for Ukraine. With Trump being so feeble and the EU doing so little, there's nothing much to stop Putin making future inroads into Europe.

I'd like to see Zelenskyy mounting a last attack on Moscow, equivalent to the cumulative attacks on Kiev and Lviv. It won't happen though, Trump is in Putin's pocket and won't allow it.

The 'peace' that Trump is proposing is risky. It will be spun by Putin as a huge victory for Russia - no way would that be regarded as a negotiated settlement after a military stalemate. The legions of Putin bots / headbangers on social media are beyond ecstatic this evening - seeing this a potential big win for their favourite dictator plus Trump and a humiliation for Ukraine and NATO.

Did you ever think it was strange that Ukraine supported Israel?

Probably seen as normal here.

Their drone production certainly has been scaled up.

"In October 2024, President Volodymyr Zelensky stated at the opening of the Second International Defense Industries Forum that Ukraine is already capable of producing 4 million drones annually.

In November 2024, the President announced that in 2025, Ukraine plans to produce at least 30,000 long-range drones."

https://mil.in.ua/en/news/in-2025-the-ukrainian-defense-forces-started-receiving-about-200-thousand-drones-per-month/

Apart from the Drones etc it's turned into a ww1 trench warfare situation we all know that went well ,,wars can't last forever on either side ,lines being drawn up now not a million miles off 2014 ,not great but at least they will have a peace and then (hopefully in the future) negotiate the future of the disputed territory through the will of the people that live there who recognise as Ukrainians and Russian.

Nothing to defend? EU democracy and the European way of life can only be defended by strength, not just by words. This is what has been built since the end of World War II, and it will fall apart if left undefended. For the EU to maintain its regional and global relevance, as well as its economic stability, security, and prosperity, it must step up, deepen integration, and take responsibility for its own defense.

The idea that Europe has little to defend and no use for an army is both naive and defeatist. It repeats Russian propaganda and shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the Kremlin's worldview.

A sovereign country that cannot protect its waters, airspace, and land is not truly sovereign. From an Irish perspective, it may be comforting to believe that diplomacy alone ensures peace, but that ignores reality. Ireland has long relied on the security provided by allies and partners, yet there is often a sense of moral superiority in rejecting military preparedness. This attitude, dismissing NATO as warmongers while enjoying the peace and prosperity it helps guarantee, is not just hypocritical but also strategically short-sighted. Worse, freeloading on the defense efforts of others while taking a moral high ground is not welcome by any allies, especially in the EU, where collective security and burden-sharing are fundamental principles.

No, they won't have peace - peace with Russia is not possible in the current configuration. Any peace treaty with Russia is as worth as toilet paper, they won't honour it (dozens of examples in last 100 years). They would pause, rearm, and then attack again along with hybrid warfare e.g. install a puppet government that would fold itself.

Peace with Russia is possible only when they are weak and temporarily cease their imperial aggressive ambitions. This was the case only during the late Gorbachev and early Yeltsin era, they were out-armed by Reagan, in chaos, and on their knees economically, that's why changes and peace were possible. Once they consolidated under early Putin, we have the same Russia back as we always had in the last few centuries - aggressive, expansionist, imperialist. Before that similar period of "peace" was in 1917 again because of internal chaos and the weak grip of the Kremlin on power.

Russia without Ukraine is not a superpower or a major power (many reasons for this). That's why the founding republic of the USSR was Ukraine SSR, and that's why Russia always struggled to control Ukraine in the last several hundred years. Also, Russia cannot have a democratic prosperous Western-oriented Ukraine on its borders, it would cause internal pressure on the Kremlin regime and they cannot allow this.

It's pretty galling that Putin will be rewarded in some shape or form with the inevitable deal that will come about .I

Ukraine's arms industry has been growing for the last three years and so has the capacity to arm them from other EU countries. The best hope for peace in Europe is a strong military in Ukraine to defend Europe from an expansionist dictatorship that regards openly subjecting people to terrorism as an acceptable strategy. When it comes down to the two sides in Ukraine not agreeing on what should be the outcome to putin's attacks, will Trump be OK with the arms industry in the USA having to go idle and the republican party dominated states having growing unemployment so his party will loose its grasp on power in the USA?

I wouldn't be leaping to any foregone conclusion that Trump wants to just hand Putin everything he wants on a platter for countless reasons.

First, Putin has signed into legislation four zones, none of which Russia controls fully - Putin is likely to make unreasonable demands on these zones unacceptable to the US let alone Ukraine itself.

Ukraine itself has free agency, it does not have to agree to any unrealistic or highly unfavorable deal. It also holds land in Kursk Russia is struggling badly to regain.

Trump himself repeated what Hegseth said that it's unlikely that Ukraine will get it's pre-2014 borders back - I don't think that's any sort of stunning revelation, eg Crimea being an obvious point.

But Trump also said - and this is getting a bit lost - Ukraine will get "some" of its land back.

I suspect Putin will discover pretty quickly that he doesn't hold all the cards some people seem to think he holds.