Originally Posted by
Ninthace
Russia pulled out of Afghanistan when their losses reached 10,000. Now they are well over that, possibly double and to coin a phrase, you ain't seen nothing yet.
USSR leaving Afghanistan was a different sort of political and cultural thing than 'restoring Russian lands/borders/people to Russia.' The Russians might be willing to pay a higher price to 'get some of their land back into Russia' which looks to be a discrete and well supported (by the Russian political rhetoric, I mean) war aim.
From a Ukrainian perspective the war is winnable, from a Russian perspective, you cannot get there from here.
Depends on what victory conditions are. Keeping, or getting back, Mariupol would seem to me to be a Ukraine victory condition. Land bridge to Crimea and annex parts of Eastern Ukraine seems to be a Russian victory condition...but I am estimating here. There may be lesser included cases inside Russian or Ukrainian policy circles that don't look anything like that.
Originally Posted by admikar
All I am asking here is, can West be the one pointing the finger considering their moral blunders over the years?
Short answer: yes. Welcome to the world of politics, which is the parent of war.