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Now the U.S. and European militaries are training Ukrainian forces in Europe. Most U.S. training takes place at U.S. military bases in Germany. And even though the fall of the Soviet Union was notable for its lack of bloodshed, many in Ukraine refer to today's conflict as a true "war of independence." All these measures were approved when both the House and the Senate were controlled by Democrats. Some Republicans are saying the U.S. should stop funding Ukraine.

• Mr Putin is widely believe to have miscalculated the scale of the Ukrainian resistance.









• Ukraine, Jensen suggested, might try a spectacular special operation to assassinate a Kremlin official, or Russia could decide to use — or simply test — nuclear weapons.









• You can’t kill just Ukrainians and no Russians and therefore swing the tide on the battlefield.









• And on the other hand is the west, which is telling the Russians this war is gonna be too costly because we have sanctions on you and your complete economy will implode.

One concern is it could yet extend to other post-Soviet countries such as Moldova and Georgia, both of which, like Ukraine, have Russian-backed breakaway regions within their respective territories. The other, perhaps greater, risk is that Russian aggression could spread even farther afield, to the Baltics, which would not only draw NATO into a potential conflict, but also fundamentally threaten the post–Cold War order. One reason that countries such as Germany have been reluctant to send heavier weapons to the Ukrainians is that Berlin does not want to give Putin any pretext for escalation. Just ask Austria's Archduke Franz Ferdinand, whose improbable assassination in Sarajevo sparked World War I.

Russia and Ukraine’s war over grain

“Those who are against the war have left, and those who remain are adapting,” Meister said. But the sizable swaths of terrain Ukraine wants to liberate will take time, and to even build the necessary forces will take six months, Donahoe estimated. But this winter, they’re expected to launch attacks across open plains, which would be harder to defeat, said Daniel Rice, a former U.S.

And at some moments they came very close to winning, right? So it’s a somewhat naive perspective because I think that Russia has plenty of hardware and mobilisation potential to keep fighting for a long time. The question is, do the Russians think that they still have a chance to score the necessary victory? So, I mean, if they push back the Russians all the way to the 1991 borders, the Ukrainians are gonna say, “We’re willing to settle,” and it would be genuine. I don’t see why the Russians would ever accept it, to repeat myself. I mean, Putin may be removed, but then there will be a more hawkish leader who’ll replace him.

More weapons needed

But Mr Putin might take the risk if he felt it was the only way of saving his leadership. If he was, perhaps, facing defeat in Ukraine, he might be tempted to escalate further. We now know the Russian leader is willing to break long-standing international norms.

• And in addition, know the attitude and behaviour of potential allies of either side.









• That scenario could embolden critics of the war; increase public discontent with continued funding for Ukraine; and pose a problem in terms of arms production and supplies for the West.









• Moscow had expected Russian forces to take key cities including the capital Kyiv within the first few days of the invasion.









• Hein Goemans Going back to the analogy of the first world war one more time, what really changed attitudes in Germany was the collapse of Bulgaria and Austro-Hungary suing for peace.









• Explosions were set off in cities and military sites, airports, and airbases were seized.

Russia also intensified its bombing of cities on Tuesday, including in civilian areas. Footage "of the aftermath of a missile strike that hit Kyiv's main TV tower and a nearby Holocaust memorial showed a gruesome scene of blown-out cars and buildings and several bodies on fire," The Washington Post reports. The southern city of Mariupol suffered 15 hours of relentless shelling, while missiles also bombarded Kharkiv, allowing paratroopers to land in the eastern Ukrainian city. At 3am (UTC) President Vladimir Putin authorised a “special military operation” with troops entering the country from the north, east and south at 5am. Last Sunday, Putin ordered Russia’s nuclear forces be put on high alert, after the West imposed a number of crippling sanctions and which he described as taking “unfriendly” steps against his country. Ukrainian armed forces have fought back with fierce resistance, with Russia failing to take key cities within the first week of its invasion and remove President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Putin ousted

Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, also called for sending long-range missiles to Ukraine alongside advanced Gray Eagle and Reaper drones. “Everything I have come to learn about the will and determination of the Ukrainians leads me to conclude retaking Crimea is within reach, and they need the artillery that will enable hitting targets — the sites of missiles destroying infrastructure in Ukraine,” he said. The challenge now is training and equipping an armored force big enough and sophisticated enough to envelop Russia’s fighting force. “I would love to think the kinetic phase could end in 2023, but I suspect we could be looking at another three years with this scale of fighting,” Roberts said.

• You have to defeat decisively the Russians in Ukraine to push them back.









• In the end, I think that the Russians are not willing to suffer as many costs as the Ukrainians are.









• On February 24, Russia launched a military invasion on Ukraine.









• Unfortunately, the Ukraine war, as you’ll hear, bears many of the hallmarks of a conflict that’s destined to go on for some time.









• There’s no way they’re gonna push back Russia to the 1991 borders and they may have to accept the four annexed areas as part of Russia forever.









• Hein Goemans Let me start with a very basic kind of introduction to the topic.

"The U.K. foreign secretary estimated it would be a 10-year war. Lawmakers at the Capitol were told Monday it is likely to last 10, 15, or 20 years — and that ultimately, Russia will lose." Despite Moscow's "shambolic start to its military campaign, most Western officials and analysts believe Russia will turn to criminal siege tactics and eventually find a way to break through Ukraine's fierce and valiant resistance," Politico's Alex Ward writes. A U.S. official tells CBS News that Russia could tactically seize Kyiv and Ukraine in four to six weeks. This week's American and German promises to supply advanced multiple rocket artillery and air defence and radar systems will certainly have gone some way towards meeting the urgent demands of hard-pressed Ukrainian commanders. Any notion that the EU will move swiftly on to Russian gas has already been dispelled.

But polls show that does not equal pacifism, with the overwhelming majority of Ukrainians supporting a prolonged defensive war. Ukraine expert Terrell Jermaine Starr recently told me, "every step that Ukrainians took towards Europe came as a direct result of Russian aggression." I've also met displaced Ukrainians who have re-started their businesses in European countries, mostly Poland. Those who spoke foreign languages, especially English, have had even more job options. Ukrainians who settled in neighboring Poland have learned Polish, which has some similarities to Ukrainian. Many have continued their careers, working in tech, education or manufacturing here.

Russian officials often criticise Nato military support for Ukraine and in an interview last week with the BBC the country's Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, cited the prospect of Ukraine joining the Western alliance as a reason for the invasion in the first place. While Ukraine’s location has afforded it outsize attention relative to other conflicts, it’s also what makes the prospect of a drawn-out war even more likely. https://telegra.ph/Reasons-Behind-Vinita-Nairs-Departure-from-CBS-News-04-15 , after all, is situated at the doorstep of the European Union and NATO, both of which have a vested interest in ensuring that the country’s sovereignty is maintained and that Russia’s aggression is curtailed. The longer the Russian invasion continues, the greater the refugee crisis that Europe is likely to face, and the riskier the situation becomes for NATO, which has gone to great lengths to avoid being drawn into direct conflict with Russian troops.