Bingo. Its the issue everyone seems to avoid.
Ukraine left the Soviet Union with about 55 million people.
Its last census was 22 years ago, which placed it at 48 million. Being the most corrupt country in Europe, its outward migration for the last 30 years has been 300-500K per year. Ukraine has also has had the lowest birth-rate in Europe.
It lost Crimea, which is about 8 million
It lost another 6-8 million as refugees. Refugees are usually younger people, who have the energy and initiative to handle the change
It lost another 10 million in the provinces Russia Controls.
Rump Ukraine probably has no more than 20 million people remaining. How many young men have been killed? 150K? 200K?
The West kept pushing for it to join NATO. Russia has declared for decades - NATO on Russia's border is an unacceptable threat.
Still, DC neocons kept pushing, and they got the result - Ukraine is destroyed. Ukraine is ALREADY utterly ruined for the next 50 years. It won't even be fit to be a proxy.
This was so easy to forecast a blind man could have seen it. The Russians through attrition will eventually win unless the neocons get their wish for WWIII, then we all will lose. I don’t think they realize in a conventional war we have Milley and his prancing joint chiefs and a hollowed out woke military, being led by their president BiteMe. If it goes nuclear I don’t think the warmongers have figured it out that ICBM’s and their H bombs will not give them special consideration and let them live.
A negotiated end to the war is in all parties interests except for the US and it’s warmongers who want the $ war generates for the military industrial complex and the never ending death and all for something that has no strategic value whatsoever to the USA.