Originally Posted by rickair7777

It would be very difficult for Vlad and his regime to back down now and remain in power. At the very least they have to make some kind of settlement with at least an appearance of RU gains (such as more RU-friendly political arrangements in the eastern provinces, etc, etc).

Also the RU naval base at Sevastopol is probably a big driving factor at this point... they simply cannot lose that, and it's also vital that they have assured logistics for it. A couple bridges from the east may not be enough, if I were them I'd really want to hold the entire Crimea otherwise the base is held at permanent risk. The base was on lease from UR, that got extended by the previous (RU friendly) UR administration but it's fairly obvious that there won't be any lease options in the future.

The loss of Sevastopol might well be too much for the RU people and power brokers to tolerate, regardless of Vlad's status. Even without their racial paranoia, Sevastopol is probably a legitimate national security issue for RU. As opposed to say nazis.