I suppose if you dont want to understand what happened in the...

I suppose if you dont want to understand what happened in the first 3 months of
the war, then that's your prerogative .

Certainly Russia wanted a regime change in Kiev and that was discussed
easy in the war at a meeting brokered by the former Israeli PM until bummbling
Boris arrived on the scene and put a spanner in the works. (some say a US spanner)
By the way Putin agreed at that meeting not to have Zel assassinated .

What is more likely than not, Russia was been advised on the regime change
by the Ukraine's ex PM who had to flee to Russia early 2024 and what is more probable than
not that Yanukovych would have been the Russian Kiev regime changer to restore the
ukraine to a peaceful/pro-Russian 2013.

That of course didn't happen . The peace talks were a sizzler, Russian forward troops
outside Kiev encountered formidable resistance (thanks to NATO-USA) outside Kiev
and from there on in it was all out war of which we see today.

If the peace negotiations succeeded then , the big question is would the Ukraine
be better off today? Its more likely than not that if the peace negations then had been successful
that less Ukrainian lives would have been lost, less property damage and less Ukrainian
Refugees . Would that have offset the Ukraine's intent of self determination . Perhaps
to an idealist, no but perhaps to a pragmatist yes?

My position is that I simply dont know because IMO war is the problem and not the solution
That position is much more relevant today than it was say before the war due to Nuke
sabre rattling by both sides in the interim. (Russia has moved Tactical Nukes to Belarus
close to Kiev and last week NATO (USA) have ordered extra Nukes out of mothballs)