If you didn't accept it before, you have to accept it now.
"Pro-Russians" are living in a state of truth-flux. They are one moment the victim, but then the aggressor, but in a "justified" way.
One moment they don't "threaten Europe", but the next they say "we'll do a pre-emptive nuclear strike".
One moment they say Europe is a pathetic dumpsite, but then say that they're threatened by Europe.
One moment they say they care about Ukraine and Ukrainians and want a negotiated settlement, but the next they say only "total capitulation" of both Ukraine and Europe will satiate their appetite.
It truly is crazy.
The only thing "consistent" about the Russian position at this point is that it is inherently inconsistent.
And that inconsistency is there because they can't admit to themselves that they shouldn't have done this; that this war was a massive tragic mistake.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAaSaqZCBg8&ab_channel=BBCNews
I used to be sympathetic to the Russian position because they used the argument that they were protecting people from attack.
It wasn't about conquering Ukraine, but about guaranteeing rights for Russo-Ukrainians.
Crimea could be negotiated on in the future. LPR/DPR could become autonomous zones within the Ukrainian state, as long as they were guaranteed minority rights.
Now it's evidently clear that was never the case. All the territory taken by Russia will not be given back (unless they are defeated and forced into conceding it).
This was all about a wider geopolitical revenge fantasy against "the West" (particularly Europe). And the Russian government deliberately sacrificed and continues to sacrifice large amounts of their own people as well as "brother Ukrainians" to fulfil that fantasy goal.
