those with sense should probably leave the country, or at least hope their homes lie behind the Russian side of the border

Sadly, that would exclude a lot of people - the majority would not be able to afford uprooting and leaving. My parents, for example, are way in their 60s and retired - you know how it goes with neoliberal pensions, their only hope is me. And I’m not trying to be dramatic - that’s just how it’s going to be.

There’s no reason to believe the Nazis will be ousted anytime soon, not anywhere without Russian assistance, at least. By-and-large they’ve preserved their ideologically-aligned troops while sending the conscripts to the front to die- and they have the backing of the entire west behind them.

And this is precisely the reason why I think Russia is going to denazify the ENTIRE Ukraine. There’s not going to be any partitioning, they will not carve out Western Ukraine and give it to the Poles. The Banderites will ALWAYS pose a problem for Russia. You have to remember - the majority of the people in Ukraine are bilingual and they can either easily switch to Russian or quickly pick it up. A perfect pool to draw future terrorists against Russia who can blend in and wreak havoc. Russia may not want to go there militarily, but they are (I think) going to try to topple the government, install their people, and order those people to go on a hunt in Western Ukraine. How that’s going to play out - whether there’s going to be a long, protracted guerrilla warfare or the Nazis will just run like the little rats they are - we shall see…

Honestly? I genuinely think that Russian annexation is the best of a plethora of bad options and possibilities for Ukraine’s future ahead.

I genuinely don’t know, maybe you are right but who knows. One factor that can play a significant role is the way the local people would react. My take on it is that the locals will see it as occupation, which may mean the US could continue to destabilize the region over and over again, funding guerrilla groups and clandestine operations just for the sake of it, and I think Russia knows that as well… I mean, if we randos understand this - they do too. Running an occupation is difficult and expensive, annexing a problematic region may play a very bad joke.