Comment by vizzah

The regions are largely already occupied. Are you aware of how many refugees have already left for Ukraine? They are not coming back to those territories unless they are liberated. A lot of pro-Russian refugees left for Russia. Any non-conscripts left for Europe.

I know what my relatives in Ukraine want -- they want to stop the war without it progressing further and without the conscription of 18 year olds. Zelenskiy should have held a referendum on Crimea years ago -- he promised it before getting elected. They purposely want to avoid this because most Ukrainians would vote to cede Crimea to end the war. This could have been used as a strong negotiating chip with Russia. Ukraine could have negotiated the return of some of the already occupied territories in exchange for accepting the loss of Crimea. But it's not happening! And nobody is allowed to talk about this -- not even hint at it! I ask my numerous Ukrainian contacts privately, and they all agree: cede Crimea, at least to end the war.

It is quite obvious that Ukraine cannot win a war of attrition, and the longer this drags on, the more devastated Ukraine will be when the war ends. The amount of damage to the economy, infrastructure, agriculture, housing, etc., is already beyond recovery. Have you seen how much the World Bank expects Ukraine will need to rebuild? More than half a trillion USD -- that's today's figure.

So yeah, you can continue the demagoguery about "who gave you the right" or "what if, what then" -- but Ukraine needs concrete steps and the acceptance that it will have to lose something in order to secure its further independence and, hopefully, future prosperity.

PS: But if you think losing millions of lives, losing bright minds who don't want to have to do anything with this war, is more important than ceding some pro-russian oblasts - go on the frontlines and fight for this flawed ideology.

PPS: I checked your posting history on HN and you seem to have joined 3 months ago to support Ukrainian-government's official narrative. I would have saved my time responding to you, should I checked it earlier.

I don't buy this nonsense about Putin having ambitions beyond Right-Bank Ukraine. Putin didn't expect such resistance, and he understands now that Ukraine won't allow itself to become entirely Russian. Western Ukraine is not a match for Russia ideologically or historically, and since the war began, Central Ukraine has become much more radical in its stance toward everything Russian. He now realizes that Eastern Ukraine is the only area where Russia can be tolerated , if ceded to Russia.

And please -- anyone who talks about European ambitions is either naive or deliberately spreading propaganda.