"This wont have a pretty ending if this goes another few days"
It appears the US wants to keep the war going for as long as possible and is happy for Russia to takeover Ukraine so that they can keep the sanctions going. Yes, Putin is probably looking for a way out, but the US is playing the long game and wants to keep the thumb on Russia until Putin is overthrown.
The west has just shut Russia's main and central banks off from the swift system and now will only allow certain things to be sold from Russia via swift. They cant shut off Russia's oil and gas entirely without causing major disruption, so Russia is to become the supplier of last resort.
So, expect more countries to ramp up the transition to EVs, and schedule a ban on petrol and diesel vehicles sooner rather than later. This will put the price of lithium through the stratosphere (its already gone through the roof).
Who knows what Putin will do next in response? Killing more people wont help his cause. It will just makes the world hate Putin more and demand more sanctions on Russia. At least the ban on vodka will make it cheap in Russia. They will need it when they see what's just happened to their share market and the Ruble.
