I absolutely understand where you’re coming from and I’m the idiot who vociferously defended the Patriot Act once upon a time. I’ve been very wrong before and I could be very wrong again.3. The United States of America, the Russian Fed-
eration, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Northern Ireland, reaffirm their commitment to
Ukraine, in accordance with the principles of the CSCE Final Act, to refrain from economic coercion designed
to subordinate to their own interest the exercise by
Ukraine of the rights inherent in its sovereignty and
thus to secure advantages of any kind. (From Budapest memorandum of 1994).
Why trust again?
Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ Anything more comes from the evil one.
But I am very confident that Putin is about to do a very dramatic pivot and suddenly get very concerned with other matters. Trump is going to give him a role in the Iran nuclear negotiations (giving Putin the international credit that is the only thing he values) and suddenly Ukraine is going to take a back seat for Russia.
There will be a few years of stasis and then a very good deal for Ukraine will be cut.
Unfortunately there just isn’t a scenario where military victory can be achieved at anything approaching a price anyone is willing to pay. I’m sorry. I can only imagine how that sounds to a Ukrainian patriot.