I am not surprised that the Ukraine-Russian War
continues, bogged down in Bakhmut and a muddy
Ukraine spring
(https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/01/world/europe/ukra
ine-mud-counteroffensive-weapons.html). Fourteen
months of fighting have left, as of February 2023, an
estimated 189,500 to 223,000 Russian casualties,
including 35,500 to 43,000 killed in action, according
to a leaked Pentagon document Airman Jack Teixeira
allegedly posted on line. The illegally leaded
document also estimated that Ukraine had suffered
124,500 to 131,000 casualties, with 15,500 to 17,500
killed in action. And the fighting in Bakhmut have left
an estimated more than a 100,000 Russians dead and
wounded since December 2022, and probably 20,00
killed. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/russia-
casualties-soldiers-killed-ukraine-counteroffensive-putin-
war-rcna82380
As one who opposes war, speaking coldly about
killed and wounded humans is uncomfortable. And I
am not so naïve as to think Putin will simply call it
quits with the war (which he does not even
acknowledge is a war) when he and his Wagner Group
comrades are using convicts and other expendable
cannon fodder from Eastern Asia on the front lines.
Moreover, Ukraine and its Western allies have no
incentive to walk away from the fight, especially since
Ukraine has more than held its own in the fighting
and is reported to have planned a counteroffensive
once the weather allows.
This war is a case where the moral and political
threads run in almost parallel lines. A point of
intersection is hard to see right now. This is primarily
due to an irrational Putin, who seems to place his own
ego and position well above other considerations.
Other than Russia’s seizure of Crimea, Putin and
Russia have failed in their military attempts to annex
parts of Eastern Ukraine and its ill-conceived war has
been a disaster. But Putin will not negotiate except on
his one-sided terms:
Even if Vladimir Putin’s conquest of Ukraine fails,
there has not been a single moment in which he was ready to
sit down at the negotiating table. Russia is ready to negotiate if the
negotiations are based on “a new world order,” says Russian
foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, but that is unachievable. Russia
seeks to destroy the current order, not build a new one. Over
the course of this war, Moscow has conveyed a single message:
there are no norms orlaws that Russia would be eager
to comply with. Fishman, April 23, 2023,
https://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/price-
putin-ready-pay
So sadly, the war will continue, and we here in the United States will (except for a few extreme right wing Republicans) continue to cheer Ukraine, supply weapons and ammunition, and pray for rational Russian leaders to send Putin packing.
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