How do the 'Others' think? When entering a tense confrontation with someone who can make or break everything you've tried to achieve, which could escalate, and result in your total destruction, you want to fathom how the 'Other' is thinking. How far is he, or she, willing to go? Which moves are likely? At which moment will he or she capitulate?
With a country like Russia, or China, governed for 'ages' by the same individual, that exercise should be a lot easier than if you are going up against the US, the EU and NATO. In fact, these Western entities are, and have been for quite some time, completely unreliable in every sense. As Biden approved the use of long-range missiles targeting Russia, coinciding with a formal change in Russia's nuclear strategy, which now reads that an attack by a non-nuclear state on Russian soil, with weapons provided by a nuclear state, marks this nuclear state as an adversary, Larry Johnson, former CIA analyst, concluded that NATO was playing a game of 'FAFO'. 'Fuck Around and Find Out'.
Act irresponsibly by design. Be a tantrum-driven toddler. Do not allow yourself to think of the consequences.
If you understand my thinking, and why I insist NATO (the 'Warparty') was seeking this war, planned to throw Ukraine under the bus, fully expecting the Russians to overthrow Putin and clear the way for the 'Harvard Boys' once again, in analogy to the 'Afghanistan' scenario which killed the Soviet Union, you will agree that not much thinking went into it. Some 'strategists' pulled a template from the shelf, updated it by replacing 'Al Qaeda' with 'Ukrainian militia', and presented it as the result of their 'study'.
Within NATO (the 'Warparty') this plan was well received, without anyone taking a second glance, because they assumed NATO couldn't fail, whatever it did. It could 'Fool Around', and improvise if things went sideways. Sure, some proxy might get hurt, or destroyed, thousands could die, but in the end they would get what they wanted, more money for the 'Military Financial Complex', and more fear for what NATO was capable of if you hesitated to its kiss ring, and admire the wardrobe of the naked Emperor.
In other words, when this war with Russia did not go according to plan, that was not truly an 'Intelligence Failure'. No 'Intelligence' went into it. No intelligent person was asked to provide an opinion. The military capacity of Russia, as well as its economic and social resilience, and 'smart cookie' strategy, which benefited from planning ahead, came as a complete surprise. Everyone in NATO thought of Russia as a 'Gasstation with nukes'. And they had convinced themselves that the posted election results in the country were fake.
The choice to go 'FAFO' was not a real choice. Nor was it due to 'Russian Disinformation' that everything NATO tried failed. It was hubris. Generations raised on a notion that discipline and rating performance was a thing of the past, and everybody deserves to be rewarded for participating. Adding selection criteria to command posts which have no relationship to useful capabilities. 'Fooling Around'. Having a great time. Go to war without declaring war. With no clearly stated aims, and leaving when you've got a 'gig' somewhere else.
As with tantrum-driven toddlers, it is no use telling them that there will be consequences if they don't cool it. Not even if you tell them what those consequences will be, making sure they sound serious. They do not have the intellectual capacity to comprehend, and their dysfunctional brain is taken over by rage. No thought emerges from the grey matter in their skull.
Under the circumstances you cannot expect the US under Biden, the EU under Ursula, and NATO under Mark to refrain from throwing the kitchen sink at the problems they themselves created. Therefore I appeal to the Ukrainians to call it a day, which is a long-shot. Don't fire those missiles, and see what happens. It is a lost war already, and no need to sacrifice more lives and more territory. Come to terms with the fact that your 'friends' played you, like the spoilt lot they are.