“

If we look, historically, at authoritarian regimes that perform poorly in a military setting, the don't tend to change their behavior in a positive direction afterwards. So the question might be that if the Ukrainians say,' OK, we will be neutral, just get out,' the Russians might say' No, you have to give us Donetsk and Luhansk. That might be bearable for Ukraine, perhaps, in order to stop the war, but what if, for instance, 10 years down the line, Ukraine has advanced on a significant military modernization ? Or the next Russian president wants to prove his worth, and they conduct another war ? There are a lot of scenarios to think through in terms of what ending this war could lead to.