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Originally Posted by ianch99
Of course, this does not address the invasion and 20% of Ukraine he has taken. If a ceasefire deal is done along the current front line with a US backstop then Putin is rewarded for aggression. Not a good precedent.
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It isn’t a good precedent and even with US assurances it’s not a good deal. Unless the USA is going to put actual soldiers on the frontier, assurances are worthless. And Trump is not going to do that under any circumstances.
Aside from all that, a ceasefire on the current line of contact leaves Ukraine with no access to the Sea of Azov, no prospect of rebuilding the Kakhova Dam, the Kerch Strait Bridge intact and Russia still in control of Crimea and able to rebuild its naval infrastructure there. That renders the remainder of Ukraine’s access to the Black Sea, the coastline either side of Odesa, under threat.
It is strategically untenable for Ukraine to sign away the land Russia presently occupies. It’s all too easy to dismiss this as a ‘maximalist demand’ as if Zelenskyy and the Ukrainians as a nation are making unreasonable preconditions. Their territorial integrity and future security is at stake. It is blindingly obvious they are not going to let any of that territory go unless they have no option.