{"id":1311938,"date":"2025-10-27T12:42:19","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T10:42:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/the-realism-of-the-impossible-why-a-war-freeze-is-harmful-for-ukraine\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T06:19:50","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T04:19:50","slug":"the-realism-of-the-impossible-why-a-war-freeze-is-harmful-for-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/the-realism-of-the-impossible-why-a-war-freeze-is-harmful-for-ukraine\/","title":{"rendered":"The Danger of a Ceasefire Illusion: Why Ukraine Can\u2019t Afford a \u2018War Freeze\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Source: Author’s Facebook<\/a> page<\/em><\/p>\n

“Be realistic \u2014 demand the impossible!”<\/em> \u2014 the rallying cry of the 1968 student revolution perfectly captures a sentiment that remains largely unspoken in Ukrainian society, now entering the fourth year of the great war.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The reality is that when the goal in war shifts from defeating the enemy to simply \u201cending the war\u201d through a \u201ccompromise,\u201d both victory and even the much-desired compromise become virtually impossible.<\/p>\n

After emotional swings \u2014 from the fear that \u201cthey\u2019re going to kill us all\u201d to moments of savoring Yalta coffee \u2014 and following a prolonged period of largely unsuccessful fighting (unsuccessful for us, though not much better for the enemy), the exhausted Ukrainian society has lost confidence in the possibility of victory, even though, objectively, it remains achievable.<\/p>\n

A ceasefire along the current front line, which would de facto acknowledge the loss of occupied territories, reward the aggressor instead of punishing crime, and offer no prospect of reparations, has begun to seem, for some, not a terrifying scenario (as it truly is), but a lesser evil \u2014 and for others, almost a dream outcome, a kind of ersatz victory.<\/p>\n\t\t