Opinion | Ukraine Has a Strategy, the U.S. Doesn’t
Ukraine’s invasion and seizure of Russian territory doesn’t improve the short-term chances of a peace deal, which likely weren’t high anyway. It does, however, embarrass Vladimir Putin. It requires the Russians not only to scrounge forces to resist the incursion but to reinforce their border elsewhere. It improves Ukrainian morale and confidence in the country’s leadership, which will come in handy. It throws down a gauntlet to Ukraine’s Western backers, who’ve been in a state of drift rather than pursuing a clear strategy.
To return to a theme, the obvious way to lower Mr. Putin’s price point on a settlement is to bring the war home to Russians on their own territory, though most advocates until last week focused on air and missile strikes rather than ground action.
This, along with defending Ukraine’s airspace from Russian infrastructure attacks and building up its ground forces to forestall further advance on Ukrainian territory, was the self-evident road ahead. Even without a deal, wearing down Mr. Putin’s military and strategic strength remains an important U.S. interest.
That is, if the West had a strategy. The Biden administration has never laid one out. Its behavior suggests the “escalations” it most fears aren’t toward World War III but in the salience of the war to U.S. voters, who might be encouraged to wonder if Mr. Biden has mismanaged the world and led America into danger.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/opinion-ukraine-has-a-strategy-the-us-doesn-t/ar-AA1oW698
