Joni Askola

A negotiated ceasefire that produces a de facto freeze of the war would be the worst outcome for Ukraine and the best outcome for Russia. To understand why, one needs only to look at what the war itself is revealing. Moscow is on a losing trajectory, and a freeze would lock in conditions that let Russia avoid the political and economic costs of defeat, while denying Kyiv the space it needs to prevail and rebuild. The human impulse to stop the fighting is understandable, but ending active comba