Nobody said it would be easy. If diplomacy was easy this war would never have happened. You can shit all you want on negotiations and diplomacy but while you do that people are dying.
There is no logical outcome for this war. It is just grasping at straws. The best bet is to give the Russian army a hard enough pounding that you get a good deal at the negotiation table.
But imagining that Putin is suddenly going to change heart and pull out is just fairy tale thinking.
What exactly do you imagine we are supposed to do? Do an Iraqi style invasion of Russia and depose Putin? Do you realize how crazy that is?
All I can see here is Syria all over again. People kept going on and on and on about what a horrible guy Assad was and that one could never negotiate with him. Look where that got us. He got all the power back, because we let rage do all the thinking instead of reason.
The world isn't a fair place. We cannot always mold it in our image and make it they way we want. Sometimes the choice isn't between good or bad, but between bad and really bad.
Many other countries have been in this situation before. Finland fought hard against Stalin but eventually negotiated.
My home country Norway revolted to be free in 1814 and Sweden invaded. A bit like Russia they got a harder kicking than they had imagined, but in the end we knew we could never win. But by dealing enough damage we managed to get a compromise. We had to join a union with Sweden but we got autonomy. We got our own parliament, and our own elections.
There is still hope for Ukraine to retain their democracy and independence. But it is not given that they will hold out against Russia forever. You got to negotiate while you got strong cards. Ukraine got some pretty good cards still. Russia has failed to take any major city, and they had big losses. That should make them more willing to accept a worse deal than they would have otherwise.
Keep in mind Putin wants to install a puppet regime. They might have a chance to get him to accept their independence. He must realize that Russia has painted itself into a corner at the moment.
