That annexation would be just a consolation prize in the face of defeat or stalemate.
1. You think that a defeated country can annex territory?? When has this ever happened in history?
2. You avoided my example asking if it's considered a defeat if I failed to capture a terrorist leader or dictator but ended up annexing his entire territory into mine instead. This suggests that you indeed consider that a defeat.
3.So the only conclusion is that your priorities are different from everyone elses'. Everyone here including myself values captured land as the ultimate prize of war because there's almost no way for it to slip out of your control unless it is beaten out of you. You instead prioritize temporary alliances because it may look better for the current situation? I don't know but we prefer a long term guaranteed benefit over a constant gamble to keep a foreign territory aligned.
4. Territorial expansion is the most guilty desire in any war. You cannot even say that that is your goal because that makes you look like the aggressor; you have to hide it under other things and pretend to lament that you cannot give the land back because then it could fall into evil hands again so the best and safest thing is for you to responsibly hold stewardship over it... forever.
If Ukraine remains a sovereign country and a NATO ally, Russia fails in most of its objectives. And Ukraine wins in most of its objectives.
1. If Ukraine just wanted to remain a soverign nation, it could have just shut the hell up and nobody would be tearing it up now.
2. Did Ukraine state that its objective was to be a NATO ally no matter how small it has to shrink to? Keep in mind that Ukraine's words and goals weaken and slide backwards as it loses more to Russia so you'll have to go to the early statements.
3. Actually, Ukraine stated that there will be no negotiations and no conclusion to the war until every inch of Ukrainian land is returned and every invader killed dead in the Ukrainian dirt. I'd say that's a major stated objective failed. Zelensky doesn't even dare say it again anymore. Now he says peace is most important.
No, because there will be more NATO troops on the border and more threats, everything Putin wanted to avoid with the war. And another war is possible in the future.
But the border is pushed forward in Russia's favor. What does it mean that there will be more NATO troops on this border? NATO has never dared annex Russian territory before. If there are more NATO troops there, there can be more Russian troops there too. 2-way street. And will there be more NATO troops there? All of Western Europe is exhausted and sick of this. Do they have the will to expand their military when there is no active conflict and their economy is still anemic from lack of Russia fuel?
All of this could also have the opposite effect to what you expect, causing the West to correct its flaws and be able to contain both China and Russia more effectively, since the advantage still lies with the West.
No. China/Russia have different mentality from Europe. When we are challenged, we always emerge stronger because our national culture is to always rely on our own power. But that is not European culture. Once Europe adopted the pack rat mentality by creating the EU and NATO, their culture has always been to look for others in the group to solve the problem. They will host endless meetings about this with announcements every time but in the end come up empty. Nobody will take responsibility and rise but always look for others to solve the problem, only jumping in when the path to victory is clear. "If it's everyone's responsibility, it becomes no one's responsibility." People with pack rat mentality do not improve when challenged.
This is obvious, but as the West is richer and has the historical advantage, it is worse for Russia.
Worse than what for Russia? This is an analysis of how the situation has changed since the start of the Ukraine war, and since then, the West has certainly not tipped the power balance in their favor. Actually, it's not the whole West; the EU is Russia's to take care of. China will take care of the US. So since the start of the war, the EU has faced economic recession/stagnation and military stock depletion while Russia's economy is growing, orienting correctly, and refreshing its military production. It's a balance tilt towards Russia.
Or it could be the other way around and NATO could first exhaust Russia and then focus on encircling China.
If that were a danger, then China should step in with some extra help to Russia, but that doesn't look it at all. Russia's moving forward, inflicting significantly more damage than it's taking, and its economy is doing much better than the EU's.
But this is actually a victory for the new Ukrainian regime.
Before, Ukraine as a country was just an artificial creation of Soviet land donations to a weak puppet regime.
Now, the new Polish Jewish regime dominates most of the land while Russia is struggling to reclaim lands in the Donbas that had been Russian for centuries.
No no no; if you go all the way back in history to some Soviet land donations, then you might as well go back to the creation of Russia and the original land expansion that made it the largest nation in the world.
This new Ukrainian regime is also getting recognition and weapons from NATO, while Russia fails to prevent this. This is far from being a Russian victory. It's more like a trap.
The bar is set unrealistically high for Russia. How do you stop 2 enemies from giving each other recognition??? You expect Russia to stop shipping through Ukraine's western land border? It's wild how much you think Russia need to absolutely dominate in order for it to win but Ukraine just has to stay alive even if it has to lose half of itself to Russia.In the same way that I said that Russia would initially withstand the sanctions because of the invasion of Ukraine due to the economic reforms that Putin has made since 2014, some European countries can also change course and become economically stronger based on this new configuration of the world.
In the same way that I said that Russia would initially withstand the sanctions because of the invasion of Ukraine due to the economic reforms that Putin has made since 2014, some European countries can also change course and become economically stronger based on this new configuration of the world.
No. Pack rats don't improve. It's nobody's responsibility to improve in a pack rat society.
A rearmed Europe will also return to being a continent full of disputes and competition in the future, serving to break out other internal and external wars and revive old enmities and alliances between countries.
They don't have the guts. Packrats huddle together tighter and look for a new warm spot to stay safe if their old spot is destroyed.
