What really peeves me, is this pretext by us in the west to not even give the Ukrainians the ability to defend themselves.
These guys have basically bent over and taken it up the @rse to show restraint and behave professionally, but to what end.
One wonder how good the Ukrainians would be with some descent systems to take them on. And frankly if it needs some "retired personnel" to help out with "training" then why not. Russia has already opened that door and doesn't look like closing it.
A couple a dozen or so mothballed Apache's, A10's etc would do wonders. The politicians are either sitting around knowing that the situation is a fait accompli on Russias behalf and are just going though the motions, or their behind the eight ball.
But if they have any hope of freeing Ukraine, then they need to drastically do something completely unexpected.