journalist, historian, and author Anne Applebaum on the West's biggest mistake in Russia's war against Ukraine:

"The West doesn't understand the extremism of Putinism. They keep imagining that there's a deal to be done, that if we just give Crimea to Russia, then he'll stop fighting. I don't think they understand that his goals are much broader and more ambitious. That those goals involve the destruction of the transatlantic alliance and maybe even of the European Union.

They haven't understood that before there's going to be any end to the war, Putin will have to lose it. Or he will at least have to be convinced that it can't be won. The path to peace is through convincing Putin that he won't win the war, that it's hopeless.

Right now, if you really, really want peace, then you must arm Ukraine and defend it until Putin realizes the war is over," @anneapplebaum said.

: DW
https://x.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1951704501183815784

https://litter.catbox.moe/re43egk6z1pykoyl.mp4