Russian general says Eastern Europe is next, reminding us why we need to back UkraineBy Dalibor Rohac
Published Sep. 11, 2023
If you think, like Elon Musk, that instead of fighting, Ukraine and Russia “should agree to a truce,” the recent interview with General Andrey Mordvichev, one of Russia’s top commanders in Ukraine, should give you pause.
Asked about the war’s expected duration, he said the quiet part out loud: There is still “plenty of time.”
According to him, “If we are talking about Eastern Europe, which we will have to, of course then it will be longer.”
In other words, the Kremlin is in the conflict for the long haul.
Not only it is committed, as Russian President Vladimir Putin himself stated on numerous occasions, to the destruction of Ukraine’s statehood, but its ambitions extend beyond Ukraine, encompassing Moldova and Georgia as well as our NATO allies in the Baltic states and Poland.
None of this is news to Eastern Europeans.
As the late former president of Poland Lech Kaczynski noted in 2008, after Russia attacked Georgia, “Today Georgia, tomorrow Ukraine, the Baltic States the day after tomorrow, and then perhaps the time will come for my country, Poland.”
America’s self-styled realists who believe a compromise can be reached with Putin — perhaps peace in exchange for some territory and promise of Ukraine’s neutrality — have a hopelessly unrealistic, naïve understanding of the Kremlin’s thinking.
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Source:
https://nypost.com/2023/09/11/russian-general-says-eastern-europe-is-next-reminding-us-why-we-need-to-back-ukraine/