The foreign minister of Lithuania, Gabrielius Landsbergis, urged his NATO colleagues to take the political decision to send modern battle tanks to Ukraine to give them a military edge against Russian forces. Western powers have been reluctant to go down that road for fear of stoking direct conflict with Russia.
Russia has been carrying out huge attacks on Ukraine's electricity transmission and heating infrastructure roughly weekly since October, in what Kyiv and its allies say is a deliberate campaign to harm civilians, a war crime. (NP)
This "fear of stoking direct conflict with Russia" is a refrain that continues to paralyze western decision making. We are close to being as guilty as Russia with our meek supply of generators and limited range weapons. We react after the fact to Russia's aggression. They bomb civilian infrastructure and destroy Ukraine's energy grid. Our response is to supply generators?!? We're in a proxy war with Russia already! Ukraine's soldiers are our proxy soldiers!
It's abundantly clear that Russia has committed and continues to commit war crimes in Ukraine. They loot Ukraine's museums and art galleries of priceless Ukrainian cultural symbols in the obvious ongoing campaign of genocide. They deport thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia where they will be assimilated into the borg. Russia is trying to rewrite history and wipe the existence of Ukraine from the face of the earth. And yet we continue to debate the downsides of supplying long range munitions and F-16's or Gripens or Abrams/Leopard tanks. "We stand with Ukraine" is a phrase that has become so meaningless it should be abolished. Our ignorance and timidity is astonishing!
We have an opportunity to solidify a world in which human rights and freedom are inviolable yet we persist in fearing a dictator who keeps pushing the envelope (see Russia's jets very recent joint incursion into the South China Sea accompanying Chinese bombers!).
I hope Ukraine keeps developing its own armaments industry and buys what it needs from countries like S. Korea (which by the way is now the world's third largest manufacturer of military hardware). Face it Ukraine. In the short term you are not going to get the assistance you require. Our leaders are reactive and cannot switch quickly enough to the active mindset that is required in order to defeat Putin. The west would rather see a drawn out grinding war, ending in Ukraine's loss of its territory on the Sea of Azov than commit the resources you require now. Without the absolute defeat of Russia now, we will revisit this entire scenario in a few years time. Russia is being gifted the opportunity to learn from its almost catastrophic mistake in invading your sovereign nation. The only way to make it catastrophic is to supply the heavy weapons you require, but that won't happen. Our refusal to supply Ukraine with armaments that could defeat Russia now means we are complicit in the genocide that Russia is quite obviously intent on completing. The only way this war ends, is if Ukraine finds success in procuring heavy weapons on its own. There may still be time to do that if they get the money that is needed. Since it is evident that Ukraine is not going to get heavy armaments in time, then funneling Ukraine planes loaded with $billions is what is needed. It happened in Iraq, so why not Ukraine? Give them the cash so they can buy what they need!
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