And no, there's no vested interest on China's part.

Oh, we're really going to have to agree to disagree on this point. A weak Russia that depends on China secures favorable terms for China in terms

-Energy exports
-Minerals
-other raw materials
-military technology
-space cooperation

...and a whole host of other things. Not only that plus the longer the war drags and the more money/energy/focus the Ukraine war takes the less of all 3 there is with respect to China's ongoing things.

Ask your friends on this board what China is doing in the Spratly Islands, for example.

China has an economy that is entirely dependent on oil imports - they are the world's largest oil importer, and Russia is their largest supplier. Them cutting off Russia in favor of us would be a disaster for them. They can't do it.

China can buy oil anywhere it wants. They get 19% of their oil from Putin right now.

Yes, we know you see it completely different. Because you have this weird idea that Ukraine's path to victory requires driving the Russians out instead of damaging them for long enough that they can't remain. But if Ukraine was in danger of not being able to continue the fight any time soon, they would be asking us to get them a ceasefire rather than asking us for guns and tanks and other weapons.

No, I'm a realist. This board is the weird place that's saying "punish Putin" absent any reality check on what's actually going on on the ground and absent any plan other than "Punish Putin down to the last Ukrainian". Sucks to be Zelensky, I suppose.

You're the one who keeps saying "make the Russians leave" so I don't see how you're trying to reverse that and put it on me. The fact of the matter is that they've achieved a stalemate of sorts on the front lines and need to do something to break the deadlock. A cease fire also allows time for the Europeans to stage their own forces inside the Ukraine as a part of a real security guarantee.