Vice Ukraine: I can not believe I am saying this; generally see fighting wars as senseless suffering; generally upon innocent civilians.

But I see no alternative here. Even if Putin takes a hit in his ability to control, he will remain in power as long as he is useful to the oligarchs and their financial well being. If they are not willing to oust him now, they likely never will be.

If he stays in power, eventually he will convince himself that he won in Ukraine, no matter how obvious the loss. We need look no further than Florida to see how deluded those in power can become. Nor need we look far to see their ability to fool “some of the people allof the time”.

Inevitably, then, he will do this again. Surely, the Baltic nations and the entire EU see this.

My opinion, free and likely barely worth that, is that they, the EU and Baltics give Russia an ultimatum, back by preparation; either Russia stop bombing cities and civilians in Ukraine and withdraw or we go to war.

If not now, then the only question will be, who is next.