Comments by "Sean Cidy" (@seancidy6008) on "Is Putin ready for ceasefire talks — and does it matter?" video.

Anders is basically right that Ukraine has to be supported. But Ukraine's interests are not identical to NATOs. Ukraine has the very best of motives to try and get the West far more involved than it is already is or wants to be, We don't know how things actually are with the Russians' will versus their conventional capability. Anders seems to speak as if we can assume their will is relatively fragile and they'll quit long before the conflict threatens the continuation of the current system in Russia. We don't know that. If anything the Kremlin's will appears to be much stronger than their conventional military and economic power. How the Russian leadership would react to a build of of pressure is uncertain . There might be a tipping point where the suddenly flip from rhetoric and decide action as a specimen of what they can do has become necessary.
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Of his successor Eden launching the Suez debacle (invading then withdrawing under pressure in the terminal folly of the Empire), Winston Churchill said : “I would never have dared; and if I had dared, I would certainly never have dared stop". After Suez Britain ceased to be thought of as an Independent Great Power, even by British establishment insiders. Putin surely understands he made a profound miscalculation in launching the SMO, but that barely touches the nasty reality that Russia's credibility as a country willing to go (not merely conventionally) to the final extremity is in grave peril if it accepts anything Ukraine can accept as a win for them. An occupant of the Kremlin who withdrew would have to face questions about the cost in blood and treasure already sunk into the war: 'was all the sacrifice of our boys for nothing?'. Ukraine's leadership has a clear motive to inveigle America and the rest of the West into less and less indirect conflict with Russia. From Ukraine's point of view the worse they are doing, all the better to pressure the Americans to help with deep penetration strikes against key installations; I speak of targeting , which is certainly something Ukraine needs America to provide the coordinates for. Maybe Kiev has the idea that eventually they can provoke Russia into doing something silly by using Western weapons and intel for deep strikes on highly sensitive targets. However, at the end of the day no one is going to attack Russia whatever it does to Ukraine. The weapons supply to Ukraine ought to continue in a measured way to make the conflict pyrrhic for Russia, but Ukraine should be disabused of the idea that escalation would be in their interests. No more strikes on the Russian early warning ICBM radars please.
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Anyone who thinks Ukraine is going to be open endedly backed ad infinitum by democracies is kidding themselves.
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@paulgibbon5991 . The Ukrainians are being backed and it makes sense geopolitically to do so. However the deep strikes against the ICBM defence radar of Russia by Ukraine is the sort of thing to be nervous about. It's all very fluid and totally unlike the static Warsaw Pact NATO confrontation, which was posturing. Anyone who says they know how Russia will perceive a campaign of such strikes by Ukraine is being bombastic.
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