Depends how you define “the war”. If Russia just gave up and went home today then most likely, immediate hostilities would cease. But it would do nothing to prevent them from starting the next war again later. In fact, having proven that they can invade a sovereign country and then leave with next to no significant backlash more or less guarantees the next war.
When people say the war doesn’t end until Moscow is overthrown, it doesn’t mean that we want or plan for Ukraine to march right up to the doors of the Kremlin and burn it down with Putin inside. I doubt anyone would make significant moves to stop that happening, but that’s not the point being made. The point being made is that the Putin regime has proven itself a bully and a liar, and has proven pretty definitively that they will remain those things. So long as Putin remains in power his regime will continue to strike at nearby victims for profit. They’ve been doing it the entire time he’s been in power and they aren’t about to stop now unless forced to. Removing his forces from Ukraine and then leaving him in charge of them does nothing except kick the can a few years down the road while Russia regroups.
So yes, if you define “the war” as ending when the fighting stops, it would end it now to just send everyone back home. But it’s less of an ending and more of an intermission, if Putin is not punished. He won’t take this lying down especially after he and his forces have been so thoroughly humiliated during this conflict. Leaving him in control of his national and military assets makes it a certainty that he will be back to finish what he started, provided he lives long enough to actually do so.
I mean yeah you can say it’s just a proxy war, but if a large nation supporting a small nation during a time of war makes it a proxy war, then the American Revolution was a proxy war between Britain and France. Proxy wars can still be liberatory, just like this one, where Ukraine is literally fighting for it’s freedom and survival.
All your talk makes it sound like you think they are making a “wrong” decision. Is that true, and if so, what would you do if you ran that country being annexed and bombed?
