Quote:
Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist
I see two possible outs from Putin's protective where he doesn't end up dead himself:
1) withdraw because "all of NATO" is involved and he can maintain power because it's not his fault that Russia is being picked on by so many countries. He's used the Spector of NATO to scare his populace and maintain power for years
2) throw men into the meat grinder until the money they spent on Republicans takes the Congressional purse strings and stops funding Ukraine so he can maybe get further.
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I would have thought the most likely outcome is that a peace deal is struck that includes some relatively minor territorial / mock election concessions that Ukraine is willing to stomach that Putin can get the propaganda machine to spin as "mission accomplished" while also allowing Ukraine to have, if not NATO membership, some arrangement that provides the Ukrainians enough comfort that hostilities won't be renewed - i.e. some sort of mutual defense pact that serves the same purpose in deterring at least military action on this sort of scale, and a whole bunch of money.
But again, not any sort of expert obviously - that's just what seems to make sense.