Ukrainian soldiers inspect a destroyed Russian Tank.
The Ukrainians have done incredibly well versus the Russians. There are a lot of reasons for this. President Zelenskyy has proven to be a wartime leader of the Churchillian category. The Ukrainian troops are fighting on their home turf, in defense of their families and country and freedom, while many of the Russian troops apparently thought they were only going on a training mission. And the Ukrainians are receiving weapons and supplies from their NATO allies, including the United States.
As a result, the Russians have been defeated in one of their primary goals – taking the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, and replacing the government with a puppet regime. The Russian troops in the northern part of Ukraine (where Kyiv is located) are in retreat, and are apparently repositioning themselves to the eastern and southern portions of Ukraine to continue the fight there. They also apparently would like to get to the rear of the Ukrainian troops in the east to potentially cut them off, surround them, and defeat them. The Ukrainian generals have consistently outgeneralled the Russian generals, so I don’t think that’s likely to happen.
President Zelenskyy has expressed his appreciation to the United States and NATO for the weapons we’ve been supplying him. But he’s also expressed considerable frustration that he’s been denied aircraft such as the Polish MIGs which the Biden administration helped to undercut. Zelenskyy needs more of everything, including missiles, tanks, guns and ammunition. He’s also frustrated that despite the much touted sanctions, Russia continues to be allowed to sell their oil for cash which is being used to kill Ukrainians.
President Biden’s national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, recently said that our goal should be to make sure that the Ukrainians are in the strongest possible position at the negotiating table. I believe this is the wrong way to look at it. The goal should be to help Ukraine to DEFEAT the Russians. The goal should be that Putin loses this war, that he started.
This war really goes back to 2014, when Putin‘s infamous “little green men” took Crimea from Ukraine, and invaded the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine. The fighting there has been going on for the last eight years, and over 15,000 Ukrainians (many civilians) have been killed.
The goal should be to push the Russians out of ALL of Ukraine, including Crimea. If Putin is allowed to retain any of the land he has invaded, he will be rewarded for his bad (evil) behavior. It will show that might DOES make right. And it will invite future Russian aggression in the upcoming years.
Of course the Ukrainians are doing the fighting. It’s their lives that are being lost, and it’s their land that’s under consideration. So they get to make the decision. But we should absolutely NOT pressure them to settle too swiftly, or too cheaply (as we’re apparently about to do in another very flawed Iran deal.)
And we should, with our NATO allies, supply the Ukrainian freedom fighters with everything they need, including those long-sought aircraft.
Anyway, that’s my humble opinion (from 5,121 miles away.)