Journalist Vitaly Portnikov stated this on Espreso TV."No number of casualties will force Russia to cease hostilities. And no loss of infrastructure will force Russia to cease hostilities. Because something much more is at stake than the lives of the Russian population and the infrastructure of provincial border towns," he stressed.The publicist noted that the preservation of the empire as a space is at stake."And for this, Russia is ready to pay any price and fight as long as it takes for Ukraine to disappear from the political map of the world and become part of it. Then the question arises, what to do? Economically exhaust them. You can not spare people, you can spit on your own cities, but you cannot fight without money and iron. The only real chance to end this war in the 20-30s of this century is the economic exhaustion of Russia," he believes.According to Portnikov, there is no chance of expecting the end of the war in the foreseeable future."And if this economic exhaustion comes, then we will see peace negotiations between Donald Trump and Putin. If this economic exhaustion does not come, Putin will disregard any sanctions from the United States and any desires of the American president. I'm not even talking about a Ukrainian-Russian dialogue, because I no longer see any platform for this dialogue in the 21st century," the journalist concluded.