Politico wrote in an opinion piece on Wednesday about why Ukraine may lose the war.
"Ask a Ukrainian soldier if he still believes that the West will stand by Kiev 'as long as it takes'," Jamie Dettmer began his Politico opinion piece with this question. This promise rings completely empty, considering that it has been four weeks since they last received a shell, a soldier of a Ukrainian artillery unit complained to the author from the front line.
The author warns that it is not just that Ukraine is running out of ammunition, but that Western delays carry a much more serious danger:
the Ukrainian soldiers are running out of fighting spirit, which is also indispensable for victory.
According to Jamie Dettmer, the morale of the soldiers is low, because the relentless bombing, the lack of advanced weapons and the losses suffered on the battlefield have completely destroyed it. The young people who heroically and fearlessly lined up to join the army at the beginning of the war have completely disappeared from Ukrainian cities hundreds of kilometers from the front. In addition, many people left the country permanently.
Based on the picture emerging from his reports in Ukraine and dozens of interviews with political leaders, military officers and ordinary citizens, the author sees a country that
which is heading straight for disaster.
Although President Volodymyr Zelensky says Ukraine is trying to find a way not to withdraw, military officers privately accept that more casualties this summer are inevitable. The only question is how bad the losses will be. Meanwhile, it is undeniable that Vladimir Putin has never been closer to his goal.
"Your name will be in the history books" - this is what they try to motivate the soldiers
"We know that people are tired, and we hear that from regional governors and from the people themselves," Andriy Yermak, Zelensky's chief of staff, told Politico. Jermak travels to the most dangerous places to gather citizens and soldiers for battle.
We tell people: »Your name will be in the history books«
- said Jermak about how they try to motivate the men.
However, according to the author, if the dice are not turned in the third year of the Russian invasion, then the nation of the current Ukraine will be the one that threw itself into the past. He warns that the success of Kiev's actions to push back the Russians falls far short of their soaring rhetoric. And this disappointment left all Ukrainians - from the soldiers digging the trenches to the ministers running the country - exhausted and irritated.
This is well reflected by the fact that when Politico previously asked Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuleba whether he felt that the West had left Ukraine alone, the answer was a clear yes. Zelensky was even more blunt when he declared that Ukraine would lose the war if the US Congress did not vote to support the country.
Considering the facts, it seems more and more that Putin's plan to grind down the Ukrainian resistance while exhausting the West may work. Without a significant change in the supply of money and advanced Western weapons, Ukraine cannot liberate territories occupied by Russia. And with this, Putin can torment the wounded country for years to come, because even if Russia cannot completely end Ukraine, even in the event of a partial victory, it will leave Ukraine's hopes of joining the EU and NATO in limbo.
According to Politico, this poses a threat not only to Ukraine, but to the entire world, because if Putin wins, he can strengthen his imperial ambitions even more, emboldened by the weakness of the West. First of all, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia can especially fear that they are in the next places of the Russian "top list".
Featured image: In a recording released by the press service of the Russian Ministry of Defense on April 12, 2024, a Ka-52 helicopter of the Russian Air Force fires missiles at Ukrainian targets at an undisclosed location.
Press service of MTI/AP/Russian Ministry of Defense
