When the Ukrainian Foreign and Defense Minister was in Kyiv last weekend, it was to tell the Ukrainians that they will not lose the war.
STANDING TOGETHER: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj with US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Anthony Blinken in Kyiv. Photo: REUTERS / NTB sea view
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The United States has provided a pretty clear message. To Ukraine. To Russia. And to their allies: the war in Ukraine we can not afford to lose. The message came last weekend, when US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Defense Minister Lloyd Austin met with the Ukrainian president in Kyiv. Blinken struck the American – and thus the Western – bar cover by saying:
– We do not know how the rest of this war will unfold. But we know that a sovereign, independent Ukraine will exist much longer than Vladimir Putin is on stage.
GEAR AND GEAR: The West continues to provide weapons to Ukraine. It has a great impact on the war, explains Lieutenant Colonel Geir Hågen Karlsen. Video: Dagbladet TV. Host: Håvard TL Knutsen. sea view
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It is difficult to get closer to a US assurance of support to repel Russian attacks, and possibly to win this war. It dawns on us all; this war, the United States will not allow Ukraine to lose.
Then the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was in Kyiv earlier this month, the scene was quite different. In contrast to the US envoys, Johnson emphasized the need to spread the word with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Right in the center, and in the middle of prime time. The purpose of the visit was for Boris to shine.
Different withBlinken and Austin. Because they did not just bring with thempolitical assurances that were credible. The United States had previously given Ukraine more economic and military support than any other country combined. Now another 713 million dollars came to the table, to pay for arms purchases, and to buy older Soviet weapons from allies, which the Ukrainians can use without much training. These are probably planes, and at least tanks.
The western cover was also reflected in Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre’s statement to the Storting on Tuesday. There, Støre said that Ukraine will need our support for a long time, and advocated for arms assistance not only of what we ourselves can afford, but assistance with the type of weapons the Ukrainians need most of all. The sanctions against Russia must therefore also be seen in a longer perspective, because they will help to crush the Russian war industry, was Støre’s point.
At the beginning of the war was the American president careful to emphasize that the United States must not be drawn into a 3rd world war. But as both Vladimir Putin and his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, rattled off nuclear weapons, saying that NATO was already de facto at war with Russia because of its arms supplies to Ukraine, US diplomacy has also taken on a tougher tone. Now it is a goal that the war in Ukraine will weaken Russia so much that it is a long time before the country can once again decide to embark on a new war adventure.
“We want to see Russia so weakened that they can no longer do such things as invade Ukraine,” said US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.
The United States is following up on this rhetoric by giving Ukraine more offensive weapons as well. Maybe the United States – and the West – will help the Ukrainians so that they can eventually throw the Russians out of the whole of Ukraine?
There are several ways this war can end. It can end up as a negotiated solution, where the parties stand much as they do now. It may end as the Finnish Winter War in 1939, and the Continuation War from 1941, when the Finns first resisted the Soviet attack in 1939, but Stalin captured Karelia in the Continuation War, and locked Finland into a forced policy of neutrality in the post-war period. But modern Russia can also lose the entire war, as Russia did against Japan in 1905. At that time, Russian arrogance and miserable planning were the cause of the completely surprising defeat.
Not so different the situation in Ukraine now, where just overconfidence and poor planning have characterized the Russian campaign. British intelligence estimates that as many as 15,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in two months. In that case, there are 250 soldiers every day. In addition, the probability is high that the number of disabled soldiers is several times as high. We are talking about huge losses. The United States will do its part to make them significantly higher as long as Russia does not stop the hostilities.
