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Notes -
There’s a long discussion downthread on the possibility/desirability of a truce between Ukraine and Russia. Moral considerations aside, a large number of commentators thought that it would be foolish to sue for peace under pretty much any circumstances because Putin wouldn’t keep to it.
It seems to me that refocusing efforts towards fortifying at/near the current de facto borders would change the calculus by making it much more painful to break a peace. I’m thinking especially wide-ranging minefields. As I understand it, this has made it quite difficult for Ukrainians to advance, could the same be made to work in reverse? And if so, how practical would it be to build up such defences in the current climate with current levels of international assistance?
Every military effort the Ukrainian government has exerted since 2014 had the justification that no land is to be surrendered to the Moskal under any condition. Constructing elaborate defenses, while cheaper than preparing for offense, still costs money, and every dollar and euro spent on such is one not spent on preparing another counteroffensive which is totally going to succeed, unlike the latest one, and thus sends the rather obvious political message that the government is prepared to de facto surrender land to the Moskal. Obviously the government is reluctant to send such signals, as continued Western aid is dependent on their overt willingness to bleed the Moskal in a protracted war, no matter the cost in lives to their citizenry, if it can even be called such.
I'm sure this isn't without precedent, for example, when the South Korean regime started building defenses in the DMZ after the war, I'm sure there were at least some hardliners openly grumbling about it and promoting an offensive war instead to smoke out the Red menace for good, to the extent a free press even existed, which I imagine was rather limited. And I'm also sure the construction of the Maginot Line wasn't universally popular in France either.
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