Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
Safety-first Biden’s latest concessions on weapons are seen as too little, too late for war that is not going Kyiv’s way
Copy link
twitter
facebook
whatsapp
email
Copy link
twitter
facebook
whatsapp
email
After months of lobbying by his Ukrainian counterpart, Joe Biden finally granted permission for long-range strikes on Russian soil using US-supplied Atacms.
Almost as soon as the news broke, via a leak to The New York Times, Washington announced it would also give Ukraine anti-personnel landmines.
While these weapons are seen by Ukrainians as incredibly useful, there is a feeling it is all a little bit too late in the day.
Russia has been advancing throughout eastern Ukraine for months.
Vladimir Putin has also amassed a force, including North Korean troops, that he hopes will be able to reclaim the land seized by Ukraine in the Russian region of Kursk.
With the war, much like Mr Biden’s term, heading for the endgame, it is a less-than-ideal situation for the Ukrainians to be in.
This explains the undercurrent of frustration between Kyiv and its most significant military backer that threatens to boil over.
Almost every US military aid announcement, from tanks to fighter jets and long-range missiles, followed lengthy periods of dithering by Washington.
The safety-first approach by the Biden administration could be why Mr Zelensky appears so keen for Donald Trump to take office.
In a recent interview, the Ukrainian leader said that the war would end “faster” under the Republican.
“This is their approach, their promise to their society, and it is also very important to them,” Mr Zelensky added.
Mr Trump has repeatedly claimed he would end the war before taking office, while presenting nothing that resembles a plan to do so, at least publicly.
Yet Mr Zelensky has embraced that rhetoric, perhaps in desperation, despite Mr Trump’s suggestions that he could cut US aid to Ukraine after his inauguration or perhaps worse, force a peace deal on Kyiv that would force it to cede swathes of land to Russia and give up its dreams of Nato membership.
But the reality is Ukraine’s forces are bleeding out, albeit slowly, as an effect of Mr Biden responding too slowly.
Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a former British tank commander, said: “In effect soldiers are trying to win battles and politicians are trying not to lose wars, but they often cannot differentiate from their own survival to the survival of the nation.
“You must win a number of battles to win or even not to lose the war — axiomatically many view the arrival of Trump as a politician who will make quick decisions which may be a better way to end the war than drawing it out for the sake of safer decisions — remember that ‘perfect’ is usually the enemy of the good or at least good enough.”
A man standing at a roulette wheel may suggest it would be foolish to stop gambling because next time he could hit the big one.
And for Mr Zelensky the top prize seems so far out of reach with Mr Biden at the helm, that it is now time to increase his stake for Mr Trump.
Copy link
twitter
facebook
whatsapp
email
English