Russia

The current thinking about Ukraine suggests that the war will carry on for a few more years at which point both countries will collapse from within. Russia at this point has a shortage of working age people especially engineers who could rebuild the oil fields. Russian higher education has suffered greatly since the fall of the Soviet Union. It was the United States and British engineers who built the oil fields. The oil wells in Russia are in areas called frozen tundra which means if they stop pumping the lines below ground freeze and pipes break and it would take many years to get things going again. This would remove oil production from the market. In addition Russia is the largest exporter of natural gas and this would put pressure on prices. The exports of grain from both Russia and Ukraine would be interrupted and this would cause severe hunger in many parts of the world in particular Africa. Perhaps it is time for the UN to consider the long term detrimental effects of continuing this war and move toward a settlement. There is more at stake than just defeating the Russians. What happens after that. Too often experts forget about what happens after the wars. Is it time to wake up to the fact that there are no winners in this war and plenty of losers.