I don't know how accomplishable that really is at this point - it's looking like Russian troop cohesion is insanely low[1] and Putin may just need to withdraw forces to keep the domestic situation under wraps. I'm pretty sure if Putin started peace talks he'd be ousted at this point, so he just has to sorta pray that western powers don't stall out the annexation - otherwise I think he's pretty hooped domestically.

1. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/03/01/russia-lo...

There's still plenty of room for them to convert this apparent impending loss into a partial success by gaining control of the territory they care most about, which is (likely) the South (to relieve Crimea's currently tenuous & expensive situation) and South East (to take full control of the fossil fuel resources there and bridge their territory over to Crimea), which also happen to be the areas they're having the most success in, judging by the various maps of territory they're semi-successfully occupying.

personally i always thought the greater invasion was so that he had something to deal away to get the sanctions lifted.

I think it's obvious what he should do if he's smart. Focus troops in the southeast. Destroy the Azov Regiment. Take their uniforms, patch, flags, make a big show of it on all media. Claim mission accomplished. "We de-Nazified Ukraine!" Set up a base on the Azov, withdraw other forces to 2014 borders. Commit $x billion in rebuilding aid and payments to families in Ukraine, once sanctions are lifted and currency exchange returns to Feb 25th levels so they can afford it. Prosecute a few token scapegoats domestically for war crimes (anyone for whom the evidence would make it politically impossible not to).

Ukraine will never trust them. But it's enough to take the pressure off, and enough for him to remain in power.

It does seem like if he's just invaded donbas he could have gotten away with it.

Having watched the previous fall of the soviet union eventually enough people in moscow get pissed off and there is a regime change, although I suspect putin has control of the apparatus and security forces. So, we might just see a Russia civil war.

One thing that I've never seen discussed is the notion that the incident to break the 75-year "not nuking anybody" streak the world has been on could well be a civil war in a nuclear state, in which the side in control of the notional military apparatus sees no other way our of losing.

Luckily, people like Eric Swalwell - the Congressman who proposed using nuclear weapons against Americans who resist gun confiscation - are few and far between.

... In a tweet, that was pretty clearly a troll[1]. It's important to clarify that he never seriously proposed the measure.

1. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/eric-swalwell-gun-owners-n...

Of course he didn't "propose" it. There is nothing to propose until the war starts.

> I'm pretty sure if Putin started peace talks

Didn't this happen two days ago?

It's not peace talks. It is something like "agree to our demands, otherwise we keep bombing". It's trying to get the outcome they want without further military action. And a takeover by any means is not a peaceful action.

> It's trying to get the outcome they want without further military action.

That's peace talks. The end of military action is peace.

I get what you are saying. But referring to it as "Peace Talks" is misleading. There is no goodwill or altruism here. It is purely another military strategy. If the outcome is occupation, that is not peace.

> If the outcome is occupation, that is not peace.

This is not a definition of "peace" that you share with the Anglophone community in general. Are the United States and Japan currently at war?

The US is not currently occupying Japan, but they did at some point. The US and Japan are currently in an alliance. Japan's constitution requires a self-defense force, so they don't have a normal military. That was imposed by the US after WWII.

Please don't deflect.

Let me ask you: do you think it would be just to have Russia occupy Ukraine? Do you think countries have a right to self determination and sovereignty?

Russia was signatory to the Budapest Memorandum, basically agreeing to acknowledge and help protect Ukraine's borders.

I wonder why you support occupation.

What comes after can also be occupation, oppression, labor camps, executions, dictatorship. Is that "peace" you say?

Yes, of course. There's a difference between "peace" and "heaven". Who's saying peace is the absence of anything that is subjectively bad?