> What do you mean rebuilding Russia?

Russia has taken quite a bit of damage, too (although it's tiny compared to Ukraine).

But most importantly: No matter who ends up responsible for the costs in each of the cases, both countries need a clear way to full recovery.

Otherwise you're just going to end up with an East-West Germany situation at best or an Mexico-US situation (cartels, crime, human trafficking, smuggling) at worst.

> Sanctions so far have done nothing to deter Russia.

Because the price the sanctions imposed were lower than the price not continuing would have.

If the price is simply staying at the table and keep talking, even minor sanctions would get the job done.

> Russia would never come to a peace agreement which legitimately had potential influence on them not being able to invade again. Because their goal is to invade again, after the peace deal.

I honestly dont understand why so many people hinge their entire position on this.

Russia has been warning about the situation we've got right now since at least 2002 and VERY explicitly since at least 2007.

Why do so many people keep ignoring everything Russia has talked about for decades (CFE treaty, NATO expansion, OSCE format failure, ongoing military escalation and lack of security guarantees) and just jump straight to:

Putin likes land and Putin wants to rebuild the USSR.

There isn't even the slightest sliver of evidence for this, infact quite the opposite:

- Putin could have easily kept Georgia in 2008

- The nations east of the Caspian Sea are infinitely easier to integrate into Russia, but no such efforts were undertaken

- Belarus could have been integrated into Russia much more easily, too

- There were plenty of very pro-Russian governments in Ukraine, Putin could have utilized to tie Ukraine politically much more closely to Russia with the intent of taking over in the future

> Either you overpower them and show effectively that you have overpowered them, or they keep coming.

Just the bloody opposite. The Russian mindset puts the security of the nation first. If you attempt to overpower them, they will keep escalating until either side becomes incapable of fighting.

Which is an incredibly dangerous course to take against a nation that is sitting on the Soviet nuclear stockpile.

And yes, the nukes work. All (except NK and Israel?) nuclear nations keep regular inspecting each other's nuclear arsenals for proper maintenance and functionality. And nukes are VERY simple weapons. The by far most complicated component being the conventional explosive chain involved and nobody questions Russia's capabilities on that part.

> while at the same time have some sort of uncensored LLM spewing random justifications for why they are invading

Agreed, except for the "uncensored" part. It's heavily censored, just in a very ... unconventional way.

It's hard to imagine who came up with these talking points:

- Satanist necromancers raising the Nazis from their graves

- Supersoldiers being bred in secret laboratories

- Caveman drawings having been found depicting Ukraine and Russia as one country with Moscow as its capital

.

On the other hand, everything said since the 2022 invasion is hardly to be taken seriously, since all official diplomatic dialog broke down.