Yes, Ukraine is suffering. And obviously, they want the killing to stop. But Russia’s negotiating position here is absurd. Their talking points are just being parroted by U.S. stooges. But - no serious minded person thinks Russia is likely to abide by any agreement anyways, especially one without HARD security guarantees for Ukraine’s sovreignty. U.S. and Russian pressure to sign a bad deal seems on it’s face desperate, given their obvious original war aims of complete national conquest and annhiliation of Ukrainian society.
Russia only neogtiates when they think they can’t simply seize more by force. They appear to be at that point, and post-war russia is going to be a chaotic mess. The reward of Donbas and Crimea, territory they’ve already essentially controlled for a decade, hardly seems worth all the losses they’ve taken militarily, economnically, politically and demographically
So what should Ukraine do? If they care about a lasting peace - stalling and continuing to bleed the Russian army might be the better option. These are not good peace terms. Yet.
Yeah, I get it. They wouldn’t even be negotiating if they didn’t feel they absolutely had to. They wanted it all, and they’ve pissed away so much for the hubris of an overpromoted, black hearted ghoul’s delusions of imperial glory. They have to make peace on some kind of relatively favorable terms before Trump croaks, that fuels so much of their obvious desperation and sudden willingness to “negotiate”. If you can even call it that. Russia’s tradition of diplomacy is to ask for ludicrous, maximalist terms, and assume feckless pussies on the other side will eventually cave and give you something, because…blah blah blah something about the sanctity of human life.
It’s just so incredibly obvious how big a fuck up this has been, and now what does Ukraine do? What is the smart strategic deicsion. In a sense - you’ve already won by suriving with as little territory lost as could reasonably be expected based on the landscape at the start of the war. But - a temporary ceasefire isn’t a long term peace. You want Russia to fuck off, forever, and to not be able to menace you again. Hopefully, crumbling internally into a post-Putin ethno-corporate warlord era with petty fueds fighting each other instead of invading Ukraine for the bazillionth time in history.
I dunno. If I’m Ukraine, I ride this out, keep bleeding the Russians and wait for better terms. Let Trump rage. At this point, they can probably resist without U.S. aid. Both Europe and Ukraine deserve better terms than are on offer.