It looks like Ukrainian Marines attacked a Russian controlled air port over night and destroyed a bunch of aircraft and infrastructure.

The more I read various accounts of the conflict, sanctions, military strategy, mental state of mind of the combatants, popular opinions of the civilians, etc... from various sources, I will be surprised if this war goes on much more than into April. I think there is a strong possibility in just a few weeks it will be over. The Russians are running out of steam.

I read a poll where 92% of Ukrainians believe they will win. 80% of Ukrainians are actually helping in the war effort. Having a positive mental outlook is super important in situation like this. The Russians have nothing to fight for. The Ukrainians have everything to fight for.

Both sides seem to be coming closer together, so like I mentioned in an earlier thread, I think one of the scenarios of a settlement is going to come to fruition. Russia will save face, and Ukraine can claim that they stood up face to face with the mighty Russian Bear and kept their homeland.

After that, the western democracies will rush in with massive amounts of foreign aid to rebuild Ukraine. Ukrainian government officials will get rich off our tax money and our "leaders" will get rich off our tax money funneled back to them from Ukraine.

Everybody's happy, everything goes back to normal, except all the families of all the people who got killed and the people who lost everything they had.

As the World turns...

Plausable, but I will add that the peace deal will allow Putin to keep some areas that he now controls so that he can claim that he was just trying to save the citizens of those regions from atrocities at the hands of the Ukrainians. Possibly as far east as the Dnieper river.

I agree. He's got to have a face saving way out of this. And honestly the Ukrainians will probably be glad to get rid of the contested regions. They've been fighting there since like 2014 haven't they?

I will also bet that somewhere in those negotiations there's money involved in the form of guarantees from the Western alliance for post war rebuilding.

Seems like a likely resolution. What ya wanna bet Ukraine is back in the Nuke game within 5 years? That seems to be a major deterrent. Had they not given up their stockpile in 1994, one would think Putin wouldn't have nearly the gusto he's shown to try this.

Oh yeah.

Like I have been saying... If it wasn't for nuclear deterrence, we all would already be in WWIII right now. Nuclear deterrence is what has kept the Western Democracies and Communist China out of this whole thing.

Nuclear deterrence is why we have not had a major World conflict since WWII.

Agreed. I could see something similar to the arrangement Germany, Belgium, Italy and The Netherlands have with the US where they host our nukes. The only problem I see with Ukraine hosting our nukes is that Putin (or his successor(s)) would surely interpret that as some sort of provocative or threatening gesture. He/they wouldn't be wrong, but I would like to believe our intentions would be purer than if the shoe were on his foot though.

I agree too, except I don't think Russia and certainly not Putin is going to allow western nukes or any nukes in Ukraine. Nor would we allow Chinese nukes in Mexico, Canada, Cuba, etc... It's just not going to happen.

Russian's and Putin do not view us like we view ourselves. Most of us honestly believe our intentions are true and just. Some of us know that is not the case. Nothing is ever black and white. Everything is a shade of gray.

No doubt. As much as I would love to believe our "leaders" have pure intentions, I know that's BS. I wouldn't totally rule out Ukrainian ability to self-develop a nuclear program. That would be the easiest and best way to keep the ruskies in check for them. And I'm sure there are plenty of available international resources for them to procure the necessary info (if they don't already have the right brain trust) to implement.

Irish...I pray that you are correct and it is peacefully resolved soon.

If it does end, bet your a$$ that Biden and company will take full credit.

Tyrants always have domination plans until bullets start hitting bodies. Thank God for Mikhail Kalashnikov.

It may very well end next week while Biden is in Europe. Probably already planned out. That may very well be why he is headed over there so he can claim he went over and worked out the peace deal.

If the war is settled and Russia gets a portion of Ukraine, nukes will go to Ukraine as it is welcomed into NATO. I don't see this ending with losing part of their country AND agreeing that the rest of Ukraine cannot join NATO.

More interesting news that supports this theory...

The Russian Space Agency, who most recently was making fun of NASA and threatening the ISS, is now begging NASA, The Canadian Space Agency and the European Space Agency for financial support and to end the sanctions...

Sounds like Russia is quickly running out of funds to support any of this.

If they are not begging how does it seem like they are running out of funds?

I too, pray that you are right Irish but my fear is that there will be no Russian withdrawal as long as the country is led by Putin. He is a madman and has no conscience about sending his people to be cannon fodder. As long as there are people that will follow him he will keep sending them to fight and die. I believe the question is will the Russians have enough of Putin and do something about it or will they simply win the war by attrition first because Ukraine has no more people left to fight them?

I also read today where the Ukrainians are mounting counter-offensives to drive the Russians out from around Kiev... Just the fact that the Ukrainians are not just on the defensive, but are now mounting coordinated counter-offensive operations is encouraging from their side and has to be demoralizing on the Russian side.

I edited it. I meant to write "Now Begging NASA for funds." Damn fingers...

If we get them some of the Patriot Defense systems that will knock a lot of Putin's missiles and airplanes out of the sky, it could really be a game changer in the war from military experts on TV.

I thought we were already doing that with the stingers?

I thought patriots were anti-ballistic missiles, not anti-aircraft?