Quote Originally Posted by carl View Post
Come back to this statement in 7 days time and 14 days time and lets see how you did. Then in one months time after that.

Can you do that?
Sure - conflicts aren't resolved in one sitting. That the Ukrainian and Russian governments are coming together to initiate talks is a good indicator that both sides prefer a negotiated settlement than continuing with Clausewitz's reciprocal actions until one or the other is destroyed. At some point, they will come to terms, whatever they determine those terms to be.

An announcement that weapons are coming would cause Vlad to have a kiniption and threaten all sorts of things.
Probably. The problem is that the Russians are in a position where they can continue escalating the conflict with minimal internal costs.

But he ain't gonna start WWIII over some anti-tank missiles.
No - but he could probably double the amount of Russian soliders operating in Ukraine.

And with money and weapons to the Ukrainians the potential Russki body count goes way up. That is one thing Vlad hasn't had to deal with yet, lots of actual Russki soldiers getting killed.
Interesting you should say that and then also claim that Russian state control of the media distorts the public's perceptions of the actual costs to the state. So how do you reconcile those two points?

But if their contract professional soldiers start dying, things change.
Things change for who?