Ukraine Watch...

[Forever_Winter]

The likely winner in any carve-up would be China.

The prospect of this happening would presumably prompt the US to cross the Bering Straight and take a significant chunk of territory in the north-east.

Agree UE. Plus, they might try and seize the oil fields in the north of Russia which will complement there fracking operations. So much for green energy

[clv101]

Labour cutting defence spending. Lord help us.....

Hang on, the big cuts in defence spending were the Tories! Defence spending over the next five years will be the highest in a generation.
Defence had a 13.5% cut from 2010-15 under Osborne, smaller army, navy, scraping Nimrod etc https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-34790102
Taking that forward to 2017 saw the cuts reach -14.6% from Labour's outgoing 2009-10 levels.
It's since risen a little reaching 2.33% by 2020. It's Labour that has committed to 2.5% of GDP.

Over the last generation or so, it's the Tories that have been most responsible for defence cuts, and this Labour government's that committed to taking spending to the highest level since the Cold War.

[mr brightside]

I've long expected a collapse of the Ukrainian military, and still do.

Then a ceasefire is in everyone's interests as i see it. Ukraine gets to keep their country and the Russians don't lose any more face over their military capabilities.

[UndercoverElephant]

Russia has launched an ICBM at Ukraine. I guess this counts as escalation, but only in a symbolic way. Russia does not need ICBMs to strike Ukraine, so this is presumably intended as a message to a wider audience, including the UK. NATO is unlikely to be intimidated.