HOW MUCH MORE WAR CAN RUSSIA AFFORD?

Economics could be the determining factor for peace in Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin conratulates Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov after giving him the Order of Saint Andrew during an awards ceremony at the Kremlin in Moscow on Thursday. / Photo by Getty Images.

Like many in Washington, where I have lived for the past six decades, I wonder just what Russian President Vladimir Putin is up to in his war with Ukraine. It is a war the Russian Armed Forces, with its deep penetration into border areas of Ukraine, have waged, at great cost in manpower and weaponry. Why is Putin not accepting a ceasefire in place?

Can Russia, now under strict Western sanctions, afford to keep on pushing deeper into Ukraine, as the Russian Army is doing, while leaving many urban areas, as a knowledgeable US official recently told me, looking like rubble reminiscent of Berlin at the end of World War II?