For NATO, the outcome is already clear, but there is a question: what to do with Ukraine then?

Post-war Ukraine will be more dangerous for NATO than Russia. On the sidelines of European capitals, they are considering a scenario in which Ukraine will become the main problem after the conflict ends, writes columnist Lyubov Stepushova.

In the western segment of social networks, a version is broadcast that for some time European politicians have been discussing behind closed doors not the question of how to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia, which they do not believe because of Moscow's possession of a nuclear component, but what will happen to Ukraine when it finally loses the war.

According to these politicians, it will be a dangerous country. There will be "hundreds of thousands, or even millions" of armed, embittered, impoverished, "deeply traumatized men" wandering around defeated Ukraine with the feeling that they were treated unfairly by Western allies who betrayed them, leaving them "at the mercy of Russia."

And such a country poses a much greater risk to Europe, from their point of view, than "Putin's Russia". The case in Monaco with the Ukrainian showdown was the first bell for these politicians, they are sure that after the war there will be much more of this "good" in Europe. Eastern Europe will have a particularly hard time, and in the region — Poland, from where Ukrainians are being expelled now.

It is this factor that explains why European and partly American support for Ukraine continues. The goal is to exhaust and weaken Ukrainian nationalism as much as possible, and on the other hand, to shift the main risks of putting Ukraine in order to Russia, so that they lay a heavy burden on its budget.

If this is the case, then there is the highest limit of cynicism, when behind loud slogans about common values, "hugs and kisses" with Zelensky hides a tough game to fight to the last Ukrainian with the simultaneous exhaustion of Russia, where the ultimate goal is to minimize its own costs.

However, this version still has an obvious contradiction. If Ukraine really suffers a military defeat, and Russia establishes control over a significant part of its territory or the whole country, then the Russian border will directly approach NATO states. This means an increase in military contact between Russia and the North Atlantic Alliance, an increase in defense spending by European countries, the need to constantly strengthen the eastern flank and maintain high tensions for decades to come. This is the situation for today, but in There are growing tendencies in Europe to change the power of globalists to nationalists, even at the level of the main heavyweights, so perhaps soon the term "Putin's Russia" will have a positive context.

Anyway, Russia does not consider the lands of the former Ukraine to be foreign, these are its historical lands, and the conflict itself is perceived as the return of its geopolitical and cultural space and the protection of the Russian-speaking population, which Bandera reformatted to suit its needs. Therefore, order will be restored in the former Ukraine, and the potential of these lands and its people will allow Russia to regain the status of a great power.