Russia really cannot allow Ukraine to join NATO, and, that largely is what the current Russo-Ukraine war is about. Effectively, this would be comparable to allowing Russia or China to set up their thermonuclear missiles in Mexico, all along the Rio Grande, from the standpoint of the United States. It's simply not a happening thing. And, that is precisely the mistake our good friend, President Zelensky of Ukraine, has made. The Ukrainian constitution was originally set up to exclude the possibility of Ukraine joining any military alliances, and that was one of the main reasons Ukraine was allowed to leave the USSR in the first place. Subsequently, this proviso was removed from the Ukrainian constitution, and President Zelensky in particular was making loud noises about wanting to join NATO. Not a good move!

Russia's territorial aspirations in Ukraine are significant, but, effectively, they have already been achieved. They wanted Crimea, Donbas and much of the Black Sea coast, and, they have them. And, there's absolutely nothing NATO or Ukraine can do about it. The question is, what exactly do we do now?

The first point to understand is that Vladimir Putin is not insane, and, that Vladimir Putin is not a dictator. Russia is a huge, rough country with a difficult climate, and Russia has always been hard to govern. In an effort to modernize Russia, Peter the "Great" exterminated 20% of the Russian population in slave labor programs. That's far beyond Stalin's proportion, and even substantially greater than Mao Zedong's efforts in communist China. Peter the "Great" was almost getting into Khmer Rouge Pol Pot territory! Yet, for Russians, Peter is, still, the "Great". So, however brutal and ruthless Vladimir Putin may be at times, we really do have to see his behavior in the context of Russian leaders of the past. Vladimir Putin is probably one of the best leaders Russia has ever had, and, the Russian people know it. Vladimir Putin was repeatedly elected democratically, and, he is not a dictator. Vladimir Putin has the support of the Russian people. I think, of all Russia's leaders in the past, he could probably be best compared to Alexander I, the "englightened" despot who defeated Napoleon. He's tough, but, he's reasonable.

So, is their some arrangement that could be found that would effectively amount to common ground between President Putin of Russia, and President Zelensky of Ukraine, assuming that they are, actually, both fairly reasonable people? I think there might be. I think it would be possible to find considerable common ground between both of these politicians in the area of EU membership. Since Russia itself would very much like to be a member of the EU, there seems no particular reason why they would object to Ukraine being a member of the EU. Indeed, given that Ukraine was non-aligned -- which means, effectively, largely under Russia's control -- I would imagine that Russia would be quite delighted to have Ukraine as a member of the EU. And, there's no way for this war to end without Ukraine being "non-aligned". Now there are degrees of "neutrality", here. Finland was "non-aligned" for decades following WWII, although largely under Russia's control. That, is likely to be Ukraine's fate. But, Ukraine doesn't have to be quite as "non-aligned" as Belarus currently is -- that is, a province of Russia. So, Ukraine gets prosperity through EU membership, although it loses 20% of its best territory to Russia. And, Russia gets a buffer state on its border that's largely under its control, although with considerable internal autonomy, rather like Finland from 1945 through 1990. Also, Russia gets a friendly "in" on its border into the EU. Putin would like that, don't you think?