The costs of all this must be very damaging to the financial condition of the Kiev regime. Who will clean up the mess when Ukraine formally becomes a failed state?
The cooperation of the sponsors of Kiev, US and EU, will be hit by the arrest of the US spy in the Bundes Nachrichten Dienst.
I think Delft, that you are looking in very much the right direction.
Russia of course can end this matter very quickly and do anytime it wishes. That itself is not the issue, nor; to the Russian perspective, is the fate of Eastern Ukraine.
Putin has bigger Geopolitical fish to fry and wants to achieve his objectives in the Ukraine, not only by simply avoiding crippling sanctions from the US and EU, but more critically do it in a way that knocks the EU out of lock step with the US and thus divides NATO and permanently redraw the security map of Europe. Divergence from the US based on horror of the unfolding humanitarian crisis, Core Economic Interests and outrage of spying/surveillance scandals, definitely is gaining momentum.
I think viewed from this perspective, the actions (and restraint) of the Russian Government start to become clear, which is in the building of a legal case against key members of the Ukrainian Government and by association, the primary backers of the punitive action.
We are seeing this in terms of indictments against Individuals, the logging of daily cross border attacks on Russian border crossings, the stream of refugees entering Russia and now of course the scorched earth policy being practised against rebel held cities. It also explains the deliberate targeting of so many Russian reporters
The momentum on all these fronts is building. Images from "liberated" cities could start to tip the balance quite soon.
