Last week, the Russo-Ukrainian war reached another turning point, although many were oblivious to it. The fact that France and Germany, as well as the United States, are sending tanks to Ukraine proves the commitment of the Western powers to fighting.
During the war, which has lasted almost a year, both the West and the Russians are constantly crossing new red lines. The fact that Western countries were to send land combat vehicles to Ukraine was also considered to be such. Last week, this "milestone" was also crossed, as first Paris, then Berlin and Washington announced that they would provide so-called light tanks and fast-moving armored vehicles to Ukraine. Although they are not the most modern vehicles of this type, they can still be of great help to the Ukrainians, especially in the spring, when the ground melts and ice is replaced by mud on the Ukrainian steppe.
At the same time, tanks have much more political than military-strategic importance.
On the one hand, they pave the way for the Western allies to help the Ukrainian fighters with even more serious tanks in the future. On the other hand, with this, the West once again proved its commitment to Kiev and thus to the fighting. So peace is no longer what the West is in the best interest of - at least according to America. More weapons will only intensify and extend the war even further, demanding more victims and innocent human lives. Because even Moscow will not be intimidated by new and new shipments destined for Kiev. Moreover, each new weapon only infuriates the Russian bear even more.
The response to each reported shipment is a missile strike from the Russians, which only causes more and more damage - not to the "generous" American and European donors, of course, but to the Ukrainian people.
And of course we never know where the border is from the Russian side? Which shipment, what type of weapon will be the one that not only a member of the Russian parliament or a presidential advisor, but also Vladimir Putin himself will say: this is already open Western intervention in the war. Because the allies are playing with fire from this point of view. No one can think that the Ukrainian army, which is otherwise fighting heroically, would be able to achieve the successes it has seen on the battlefield without the powerful help of the West. From then on, unfortunately, our fate is really in the hands of the Russian president: when do you think the West intervened in the war that is basically raging between Russia and Ukraine? And which Ukrainian attack on Russia will be the one after which they will actually investigate what the Ukrainians did?
Because that's what a war is about: strikes and counter-strikes alternate. But is it possible to assess what it means legally and politically if the Ukrainians attack Russian land with Western weapons?
In this case, although the attackers would be Ukrainians, it is the West that would enable such an attack. Who would the Russians blame? Is it worth it for the West to get involved in a situation with such a dubious outcome? And especially for Europe? Because America is far away. America plays easy. We, on the other hand, share a continent with Russia, whose mustache we are constantly pulling at the request of our allies in Washington. In economic terms, we have already seen where this leads. I don't think anyone is interested in the military side of the same coin. Thus, the European Union would do better if it finally stood on its heels and began to work to end the war instead of continuing it.
In the cover photo, a Ukrainian soldier sits in a trench in Bahmut, in the Donets basin of eastern Ukraine, on December 31, 2022.
Source: MTI/EPA/George Ivanchenko
