Putin’s bet is looking better and better: the US and the West are getting tired of war – CNN: EADaily

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s bet that the United States and the West will get tired of the war in Ukraine before he does is looking better every day, and the guarantees for Kyiv are becoming more and more elusive. CNN analyst Stephen Collinson writes about this.

Almost seven weeks have passed since President Joe Biden asked Congress for $60 billion to supply Kyiv with weapons and ammunition, but things are still there, the article says.

“We’re running out of money and we’re running out of time… A vote against support for Ukraine is a vote to improve Putin’s strategic position,” Biden’s national security adviser told reporters. Jake Sullivan.

While Ukraine’s survival is at stake, so is the United States’ reputation as a global leader. Just two weeks ago the Minister of Defense Lloyd Austin traveled to Kyiv and publicly promised that the United States would remain with Ukraine for a long time, but will it be able to fulfill this promise, the author asks, especially in light of the fact that the former president Donald Trump has a good chance of returning to the White House.

“The idea that Washington would abandon a democratic, sovereign state to its fate… once seemed unthinkable. Such a move would not only shake Western resolve in Ukraine. This could send a message to adversaries like Russia and China that U.S. security guarantees to allies mean nothing elsewhere in the world. But the shift in the Republican Party’s outlook—from its internationalist roots to the isolationist, “America First” stance favored by Trump—has changed perceptions of U.S. power. The political forces that could change the world during a second Trump term are already at work in Washington, especially in the House of Representatives, and threaten to transform US foreign policy.” — Collinson writes.

The coming danger for Ukraine, he believes, is that it will become even more embroiled in the scramble for government funding that looms in January and February. And even before the results of the 2024 election are known, it is clear that there is no longer any guarantee that America’s billions will be there no matter how long the war lasts.

“And all this time in Moscow, Putin is watching and waiting,” the author summarizes.