It’s also really hard to convince the other country’s citizens to “give up and go home” when their homes are under enemy control or demolished and their family members, friends, and neighbors have been killed or maimed.

It’s easy to say you’re ready to stop when your team is ahead. Not so much if you make them give up the conquered territory, and even less likely if they have to pay to rebuild the damage they caused.

The only ways this ends are Ukrainian allies supporting them enough to make Russians hurt enough to demand changes in leadership… or, you know, Russia wins and the rest of the world writes off the next decade of atrocities Russia commits against the conquered people of Ukraine…. And then the story repeats in other Eastern European countries…