This is a big mistake. Ukraine will be safe only when Russia is completely undone - there is no point to "end the war" with anything that could be called "Russia" still standing in any recognisable way.
Ukraine’s goal cannot be, and is not, to “defeat” Russia.
Ukraine’s goal, correctly, is to increase the cost of this war sufficiently that Putin’s underlings and oligarchs will revolt and overthrow him and end this incredibly wasteful hubristic endeavor by Putin.
There is some truth in that. "Safe for a year" or "safe for a decade" would be better than current circumstances, though. (Depending on how you use the year or the decade...)
Why so? Ukraine at this time is enjoying a certainly: Russians are already doing whatever they can to harm them and no surprises are possible. If "peace" will be established that will have to be ready for a surprise attack in an unknown way - because forces will not be committed like they are now - at any moment, and because it will be "peacetime", they will be in a much poorer position to be so. "Peace" makes Ukraine a lot more unsafe and in general worse off than just continuing the war - on a permanent basis if need be. Infrastructure will eventually adapt. People already did.
And of course, it makes the rest of the world MUCH better off because Russia can't be much of a trouble anywhere else. It already let Syria and Armenia shake them off because they had no resources to spare.
This is a big mistake. Ukraine will be safe only when Russia is completely undone - there is no point to "end the war" with anything that could be called "Russia" still standing in any recognisable way.
Russia cannot be fully “undone”.
Ukraine’s goal cannot be, and is not, to “defeat” Russia.
Ukraine’s goal, correctly, is to increase the cost of this war sufficiently that Putin’s underlings and oligarchs will revolt and overthrow him and end this incredibly wasteful hubristic endeavor by Putin.
There is some truth in that. "Safe for a year" or "safe for a decade" would be better than current circumstances, though. (Depending on how you use the year or the decade...)
Why so? Ukraine at this time is enjoying a certainly: Russians are already doing whatever they can to harm them and no surprises are possible. If "peace" will be established that will have to be ready for a surprise attack in an unknown way - because forces will not be committed like they are now - at any moment, and because it will be "peacetime", they will be in a much poorer position to be so. "Peace" makes Ukraine a lot more unsafe and in general worse off than just continuing the war - on a permanent basis if need be. Infrastructure will eventually adapt. People already did.
And of course, it makes the rest of the world MUCH better off because Russia can't be much of a trouble anywhere else. It already let Syria and Armenia shake them off because they had no resources to spare.