From the Russian perspective, they seem to view NATO encroachment into Ukraine as an existential threat to their survival. IMO they will not cease hostilities until their objective of de-militarising and de-nazifying Ukraine are complete.
On the other hand, the West continues to escalate the situation and doesn't appear to care about Russian motives whatsoever.
I don't see this ending any time soon; neither side appears to care for the motives of the other and so far show no signs of backing down.
Will the West ultimately accept a Ukrainian defeat if that's what it comes to, or if that's what it takes to avert nuclear holocaust?
What do you think?
I don't think anyone currently at the helm is really all that committed to whatever they're doing, to actually launch nuclear war.
The West is not committed to Ukraine's original borders in the slightest, they'll happily cede the eastern regions of Ukraine to Russia as long as they meet the goal of obliterating as much of Ukraine as possible in the meantime, so that Western Capital can issue the loans to rebuild it and buy up as much of it on the cheap as possible. You also get a nicely unstable region, Russia included ideally in their minds, flush with weapons and cash in the hands of radicals who've just ingratiated themselves to the local population by being on the frontline. More terror attacks in Russia, mainland Europe too. The US can probably manage to turn somewhere in Eastern Europe into the next Iraq a decade or two after the Russo-Ukraine War "ends", or at least get UN peacekeepers in there to provide cover for illegal mining and laundering public funds through "defense contractors".