Will Russia Be 'Defeated'?

Snyder’s argument relies heavily on wishful thinking and questionable historical analogies.

Timothy Snyder writes an op-ed about how Russia can lose the war in Ukraine without ever defining what that defeat would look like or explaining how it would happen:

Russia can lose this war, and should, for the sake of Russians themselves. A defeated Russia means not only the end of senseless losses of young life in Ukraine. It is also Russia’s one chance to become a post-imperial country, one where reform is possible, one where Russians themselves might be protected by law and able to cast meaningful votes.

Snyder’s argument relies heavily on wishful thinking and questionable historical analogies. He makes a case that Russian defeat would be a good thing, but he doesn’t offer much evidence to suggest that it is likely to happen. Then again, he doesn’t describe what he means by defeat. If he means full Russian withdrawal from all Ukrainian territory, that seems extremely unrealistic. If he means something else, he doesn’t tell us what it is.