<mediadc-video-embed data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1655485768261,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"0000016c-7763-d473-a96f-77eb53420000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1655485768261,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"0000016c-7763-d473-a96f-77eb53420000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"rawHtml":"
var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ "div": "Brid_55302152", "obj": {"id":"27789","width":"16","height":"9","video":"1033199"} }); ","_id":"00000181-72a3-ddb6-a5eb-7ab3c9d20000","_type":"2f5a8339-a89a-3738-9cd2-3ddf0c8da574"}”>Video EmbedUkraine’s fast track into the European Union is welcomed news, as is the additional $1 billion investment it will receive from the United States.
Still, Kyiv will need more than a membership, cash, and a cheering section to survive the slow onslaught of the Russian army and the devastating barrage of artillery ahead of it. Ukrainian forces are struggling to hold off Russian forces in the Donbas region; the roads to Kyiv and Odesa are open. The leaders of France, Italy, and Germany traveled to Kyiv on Thursday morning from Poland, meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in another show of support. These photo ops are feel-good moments for visiting leaders but accomplish nothing and further antagonize Vladimir Putin.
What Ukraine needs are weapons to defend itself. It needs the U.S. Patriot missile defense system or the U.S.-funded Israeli Iron Dome system. If these weapons and ammunition cannot reach recipients on the front lines, then Ukraine will likely succumb to a Russian army that is now sustained by soldiers over 40 and T-62 tanks.
Fears of escalation, surging oil and natural gas prices, and now a worldwide food shortage due to a Russian naval blockade of Ukrainian ports have scared many Western leaders. Putin has flipped the economic pain of sanctions back upon the West, to the point of inaction and public discussion by France’s Emmanuel Macron, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Henry Kissinger about ceding terrain to Russia. Ukraine should not accept any conditions demanded by Russia for a ceasefire, nor should it accept any external conditions negotiated with Russia on its behalf. Would Turkey cede Istanbul to Greece? Would France cede Alsace–Lorraine to Germany? Would the United States cede Alaska to Russia? Why expect Ukraine to cede any terrain back to Russia?
Leverage is the key to negotiations, and Putin is obtaining it. The optics of seizing the Donbas is important to ethnic Russians in the region and his support base at home, but seizing Odesa landlocks the country. Vladimir Putin hopes to hold the world hostage. He is gambling that the world will turn on Ukraine as he strangles its food supply. He may be right. Like Ukraine, he just needs to hang on. Prolonging the war prolongs the pain — for everyone, and that plays into Putin’s hand.
This “just shy” approach of support to Ukraine will ultimately lead to its demise. Fear of Russian reprisals must cease. Putin is hellbent on destroying Ukraine — punishing the people and ousting their president. It’s personal. He has no regard for humanity or the law of warfare, only the outcome, set on his terms. He is all-in — it’s beyond time for the U.S. and NATO to recognize that.
It’s time for us to “s*** or get off the pot.” If that means a potential direct confrontation with the Russian military, then that’s the message to send. The West can no longer be held hostage. Ukraine has shown the world the ineptness of the Russian military; now, it’s time to exploit it. Give Ukraine the weapons it needs to win the war, offensive and defensive. Furthermore, the U.S. and NATO need to send naval forces into the Black Sea — break up the blockade, open the ports, and get the grain to market.
It’s time to embrace the suck and challenge Putin directly, or this ends very badly for Ukraine.
Retired Army Col. Jon Sweet (@JESweet2022) served 30 years as a military intelligence officer. His background includes tours of duty with the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.
