For more than two years, Western governments have trickled weapons and ammunition into Ukraine and imposed financial and trade sanctions on Russia, sometimes with little coordination. The sooner they can embrace a “shock and awe” campaign reminiscent of Colin Powell’s Gulf War strategy, the better it will be for everyone.
From: Euromaiden Press BY ANDERS ÅSLUND
More than two years after Russia invaded Ukraine, the West, remarkably, still lacks a unified strategy. Though it has supplied desperately needed weapons and ammunition, it has done little else to address Ukraine’s needs.
What would an effective strategy look like?
For starters, Western governments need to establish shared goals:
- Ukraine must expel Russian forces and recover all the territory that it has lost since 2014;
- Russia must be forced to pay war reparations to compensate Ukraine (the World Bank estimates that reconstruction will cost about $500 billion over the next decade);
- the thousands of Ukrainians who have been deported to Russia must be allowed to return;
- and the tens of thousands of suspected war crimes committed by Russian troops must be prosecuted and punished.
Russia must lose the war militarily
The West can no longer get away with promising to support Ukraine “for as long as it takes.”
Voice of Ukraine 