Hi AC,

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Sadly I think the conflict will only be resolved with force. It will be harder for the Ukrainians as they will soon be in territory brainwashed with Russian propaganda for the past eight years. How well the Russian army performs will depend on whether they can keep up the supply of tanks and apcs. They have been a bit thin on the ground which has allowed the Ukrainians to get behind their front lines and cause problems. Also, because of the command structure, the Russian army is at a significant disadvantage when it retreats as it has to reestablish its eyes and ears before they can become an effective force. The Ukrainians are aware of this and are always scouting to find the command posts. I also get the impression that the Russian retreats have been hasty by the amount of abandoned equipment.

While neither side will like the rain and cold, I suspect that it might be of more benefit to the Ukrainians. Those cold and hungry Russians in Kherson might be losing their will to fight on.

AC,

There were nearly 5000 Russians in the strategic city of Lyman, many of them killed or captured as they fled.

It now looks like the Russian lines in Kherson are starting to collapse.

The Russians were identified as the killers of the civilian convoy and are the prime suspects in the bombing of the Nord stream pipe lines.

They've been saying for years that there are red lines, and the West kept ignoring and dismissing them (Armchar Critic). Right.
George F. Kennan said when NATO admitted Poland as a member, "It is the biggest mistake that the West has made since the collapse of the Soviet Union."

Democracy is a plitical institution that can be established and function in a country that has, in its past, such culture. It is an insititution far more than tangible things put together like a piece of paper which says, "All men are born equal and can vote for selecting their leaders when they come of age," voting booths where you have a pencil and a piece of paper to write in the names of your favorite idiots, a big builing called the parliament where those idiots assemble, and the President or the Prime Minister's office.

Colours are irrelevant. An Egyptian said to a Japanese TV, "We had food, jobs, shelters and clothes even with Mubarak, We have none of them." The West cannot expect gratitude from Afghans, Iraqis, Libyans, and Syrians. In Myanmar the West gave support to Mrs. Su Kyi, thereby sending the National Army to the other end of Myanmars politics, making the people suffer far more than necessary. The West should have urged compromises.
Democratization in the country is, now, something unrealisable there even with Su Kyi aided by such dedicated people like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln.

(Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and militarist Japan sang a similar song.
Japan did not sing the song with them.)
This is a big myth about Japan, still kept by the West because it saves it knowing the hard reality.
"one may conclude not why democracy failed there (in Japan), but how...totalitarian dictatorship did not evove there (Ben-Amy Shillony)."
To be continued.

Continued from above.
"The attempt to transfer the traditional admiration for the Britain and the US to Nazi Germany did not succeed、because respect for the West could not be obliterated...Western culture, although denigrated and vilified, continued to exert a fascination, and these pro-Western feelings, which could not be erased, were soon to surface from the ashes of defeat (Shillony, Politics and Culture in Wartime Japan)."
William Webb, an Australian, was the Chief Justice at the Far Eastern Military Tribunal. After giving sentences he said back in Australia that the Tokyo Tribunal was a sham. General MacArthur was fired by Truman in April, 1951. In May he testified at the Joint Session of the US Foreign Relations and the Military Committe.

For a little bit more of this, I would like interested people to read my thirty-one comments on John Lee, Australia can't afford to bite its tongue on China,
Japan and Great Britain entered into an alliance in 1902. At the Washington Conference (1921-22) America insisted on its termination so the two countries agreed to end it in 1923 though the they were rather willing to have it. After the World War II Chuchill said it was an error of British foreign policy not to have extended it.
Japan and the US have been allied since 1952 to date. Japan's military ties are not anything that should surprise us as might be intimated in Murray Hunter, Australia and Japan confirmed their natural defence trajectory. Tokyo has had an alliance either with Britain or America for ninety-three years out of the past one hundred twenty-one years.

Michi,

Nazi Germany, fascist Italy and Imperial Japan were ended militarily. There was some retribution, but it was constrained because changing their political systems was far more important. Following the enforced changes, those nations are now peaceful and prosperous. Russia remains a destitute mess presided over by Nazi gangsters.

<George F. Kennan said when NATO admitted Poland as a member, "It is the biggest mistake that the West has made since the collapse of the Soviet Union.">

George had lots of other great ideas like these:

"he argued that the United States should become an authoritarian, if not fascist, state and that women, immigrants and African-Americans should be stripped of the right to vote, as he felt only American-born white males had the necessary intelligence to vote."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_F._Kennan

I guess the good die young. Why shouldn't Poland or any other nation have the right to defend themselves as they choose? Nations like Poland have experienced rule by Russian gangsters and have no desire to see it return. Than goodness Ukraine has been given support against an unprovoked invasion.

I have a suspicion that the corrupt Russian military have not been maintaining their war machine so well and are starting to run out of things like tanks that work. They could lose 100,000 troops by year end.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3l2FgTr4fUw

General MacArthure said in the joint session on May 3, 1952, "Their (Japanese) purpose, therefore, in going to war (with the United States) was largely dictated by security."

Fester,
Samuel Huntigton says, in Who Are We?: America's Great Debate, a lot about the importance of a political community (a nation) having one basic culture. He wants America to have and keep a protestant identity and says he means identity not in terms of colour of skin but in terms of culture. A few years ago a former Japanese minister of defence went to the US and talked with Hispanics. He found the Hispanic people little interested in foreign relations.