Our land pre-2014 back. I think there’s an argument for ceding Crimea. Could be exhaustion leads to ceding the Donbas, and maybe Putin can call that victory. But that would require that he believes Ukraine won’t run out of ammo every time politics winds up populists in the US. Right now, we are giving him (and Xi) good cause to believe their endgame is our capitulation.

We should not cede that to them because nobody can look into a crystal ball and tell you the endgame. Ukraine’s best chance is to at least bog down Putin, increasing chances for an endgame not signaling weakness to dictators who want to conquer neighbors. And who knows? Maybe Putin’s grip will show cracks if that happens.