road2ruin
Q-School Graduate
I suspect that if it was put on the table that he could have control over the 2 eastern regions plus some sort of agreement on NATO membership then he would build that up as all he was looking for in the first place and call it quits. Not sure Ukraine would give up the regions so easily (maybe a referedum that would easily be controlled by Russia) but it would be an out that both could call a victory of sorts. It is the only peaceful way I can see out of this. Putin can keep hammering away with numbers until he wins or just flatten the country, Ukraine can hold on strongly for a period but not indefnitely. I suspect that this is the sort of deal that will end up on the table. Strangely perhaps a deal that sees Ukraine joing the EU but not NATO and so they have European defensive allies but it keeps the US out of it.
I can't see how he comes out of this well, apparently Finland and Sweden are now set to join NATO so even if a deal is made for Ukraine all he's actually achieved is to bring NATO even closer to the Russian border.