I'm glad I brought you into comment hell ;) Seems to me, it doesn't matter how many people are dead on either side. Both the Ukrainians and Russians are getting replacements. Wars are no longer won by masses of troops and haven't been for a long time. As for civilians, they don't seem to make a difference (hard to write that).

Every day I think all the angles through and I keep coming back to the same conclusion. The Russians will have to take out Putin. Even if Ukraine surrendered tomorrow the Western powers will never forgive Putin or trust him. Ukraine is CATEGORICALLY different than Georgia, Chechnya, Syria. etc.

1. None of those countries received large unending supplies of weapons from the U.S. and Europe. None of the places are critical to European security. None of those countries had a comedian in charge ;) None of those countries risked losing Russia's export market etc.

Any Russian in power who wants to hold onto their wealth can't move forward with Putin in charge. The argument that they'll accept living within Russia is farcical to me. Or that they'll be happy to vacation in China--HA!

My armchair guess is Ukraine is experiencing about 200 casualties a day and Russia around 400. I say that because it's easy for a Ukrainians to find Russians but not easy for Russians to find Ukrainians. I didn't serve in the military. I know nothing.

THANKS for the comment so I could get all that off my chest!