Lord Skidelsky has written a sensible comment about the state of affairs in Ukraine and Russia. He summarises it thus:
If
we reject a Russian victory on grounds of principle, and a Ukrainian
victory on grounds of prudence, we are left with the two alternatives of
an interminable war or a peace deal. In the first scenario, Russia and
Ukraine keep on fighting, with neither side managing to land a decisive
blow but neither showing any interest in negotiation. This outcome is
highly improbable. It presupposes that the battlelines remain static…
So
we are left with a negotiated peace. The case for wanting to bring this
about sooner rather than later is moral. We in the west cannot stop
Ukrainians fighting to the death if they so wish, but to encourage them
to do this by holding out the illusory hopes of victory is, to my mind,
grossly immoral.
His
‘we’ suggests a third possibility: the marginalisation and eventual
demise of NATO. There is a proxy war on both sides. The case for ending
it soon isn’t only moral; and Russians and Ukrainians both know it.