this post was submitted on 25 Jun 2024
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The war did not contribute much to the cost of living here. We now have to import natural gas from different nations, and apparently Ukraine was the #1 supplier of sunflower seeds, but that's mostly it.
The cost of living mainly rose due to a housing bubble and inflation. And of course, you've got lots of individuals that lost their livelihood from COVID lockdowns, post-COVID chronic fatigue and climate-related catastrophes.
I also have no idea what you mean by the current government being opposed to ending the war. They don't want to invade Russia to defeat Putin, no one here wants to try that. But unlike the far right, they are in favor of supporting Ukraine to hold Putin off.
If your idea of ending the war is giving Putin half of Ukraine and hoping he's then satiated, I do not see how that should work. It's not like Russia needs more territory. Putin started this war, because he's mentally ill. He will start another war in a few years, if this one is "ended" by sacrificing Ukraine, because he will still be mentally ill.
Well it wouldn't be half of Ukraine, it would be about 20% by area and less than that by population.
Its worth noting the fighting for Ukraine to keep that 20% is done involuntarily. People are literally being forced to die, make their partners widows, traumatise their family, for this 20%.
It's easy enough sacrificing hundreds of thousands of other people's lives (I'm assuming you're not typing this from the donbas) for this small rural farming end of Ukraine, but that doesn't make it right.
I deliberately chose a high number, because I'm saying there's no reason this would satiate Putin. He has no need for those 20% land. Why should he stop when he gets them?
If he would restart the war, why is he pushing for peace talks?
The war is both going worse than people expected it to go for him, and Russia is also making progress.
Stopping the war, then restarting it risks a restarting of the war being impossible due to Ukraine signing security treaties with NATO members, and Ukraine building it's army up as a result of this war. Furthermore, given rolling the "invade Ukraine dice" went worse for Russia the first time than expected, why would they, or any similarly inclined nation, do it?