And in Dec 2021, his diplomacy offered terms to not start a war with simple agreement to no NATO in Ukraine and no heavy armament of Ukraine. And the world demonized his "demands" despite strongly believing that he could easily overrun Ukraine. So our collective stupidity and lack of "trust" is the thing that lost Ukraine lives and territory, because we're about to do the same damn deal after much loss of both.
You don't have to trust someone in order to do a peace deal - you can keep arming and preparing on your side of the border. If you do a deal that prevents or stops a war and they then attack or attack again, you've lost NOTHING, so the argument "we can't trust" is hollow. If you never find such "trust" the only alternative is fighting to the bitter end even if that means you lose terribly.
Exactly--the main thing Putin was after was not to have NATO in Ukraine.
And in Dec 2021, his diplomacy offered terms to not start a war with simple agreement to no NATO in Ukraine and no heavy armament of Ukraine. And the world demonized his "demands" despite strongly believing that he could easily overrun Ukraine. So our collective stupidity and lack of "trust" is the thing that lost Ukraine lives and territory, because we're about to do the same damn deal after much loss of both.
You don't have to trust someone in order to do a peace deal - you can keep arming and preparing on your side of the border. If you do a deal that prevents or stops a war and they then attack or attack again, you've lost NOTHING, so the argument "we can't trust" is hollow. If you never find such "trust" the only alternative is fighting to the bitter end even if that means you lose terribly.