The United States has provided Ukraine with aid sufficient for defense, but not for a sure victory, according to prominent military personnel, diplomats and national security experts.
Authoritative American national security experts, military, diplomats and former officials wrote an open letter to US President Joe Biden, in which they called for an immediate increase in military aid to Ukraine. They emphasize that the war of Ukrainians against Russia has reached its peak and it is in the interests of the USA to support Ukraine. The appeal was published by The Hill.
The authors of the appeal note that “the Biden administration successfully rallied US allies and provided significant military aid, including this month, to the valiant armed forces of Ukraine,” however “it failed to develop a sufficient strategic narrative that would allowed governments to have sufficient public support for NATO participation in the long term”.
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“By providing enough aid to create a stalemate but not enough to roll back Russian territorial gains, the Biden administration may inadvertently be pulling defeat from the mouth of victory. By being overly cautious about provoking Russian escalation (both conventional and nuclear), we are effectively ceding the initiative to Russian President Vladimir Putin and reducing the pressure on Moscow to stop its aggression and get serious about negotiations.” said in the letter.
They are convinced that Moscow's imperialist war against the people of Ukraine is not just genocide, designed to destroy the Ukrainian nation, but also a clear threat to the security of the United States. That is why they insist on “the strongest response, sufficient to force the Russians to return to their pre-war borders and incur high costs that will prevent Russia from invading a third time.”
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“With Russian forces trying to regroup in the east and prevent Ukrainian forces from recapturing Kherson in the south, the time has come for Ukraine's allies to provide Ukraine with the tools it needs to win. Prolonging the conflict due to so-called strategic pauses will only allow Putin to regroup, recover and cause even more damage to Ukraine and beyond,” the authors of the letter write.
This, they are convinced, is also important for the US and its allies, because Putin is pursuing a revisionist foreign policy aimed at destroying the global security created after the Second World War. Since Putin's aggressive plans, according to the signatories of the letter, do not end with Ukraine, then “prudent policy today determines tomorrow's risk and looks for the right place and time to fight this risk. For the USA and NATO, this time has come – and this place is Ukraine, a large country whose population understands that its choice is either to defeat Putin or to lose its independence and its existence as a separate, Western-oriented nation. With the necessary weapons and economic assistance, Ukraine can defeat Russia.”
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“Ukraine needs long-range lights to prevent Russian offensive, including Russian stockpiles of supplies, fuel, and ammunition. This means that US should send ATACMS munitions, launched by HIMARS, with a range of 300 km, necessary to hit Russian military targets anywhere in Ukraine, including occupied Crimea. And Ukraine needs constant replenishment of ammunition and spare parts for artillery platforms, the letter says. – In addition, Ukraine needs more short- and medium-range air defense to counter Russian air and missile attacks. A growing problem is the need to deploy adequate countermeasures to prevent the increase in the number of Russian-made drones and the new ones it is trying to purchase from Iran.”
The authors of the appeal also call on the American authorities to ignore Russia's nuclear threats, because in this way Putin will only gain time and, if he succeeds in defeating Ukraine, he will do the same to Poland and the Baltic countries.
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“The stakes are clear for us, our allies and Ukraine. We must not deceive ourselves. We may think that every day we delay providing Ukraine with the weapons it needs to win, we are avoiding a confrontation with the Kremlin. On the contrary, we are only increasing the likelihood that we will face this danger on less favorable grounds. The smart and prudent step is to stop Putin's aggressive plans in Ukraine, and do it now, when it will change the situation,” it said. to the very end in grain.
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Its authors and signatories are the former commander of the US Army in Europe, Lieutenant General Ben Hodges; former commanders-in-chief of NATO's joint forces in Europe, generals Philip Breedlove and Wesley C. Clark; former official of the US Department of State and Ministry of Defense Debra Kagan; former Deputy Secretary of State for Global Affairs Paula J. Dobrianski; former ambassador to Finland and Turkey and former deputy secretary of defense for policy Erik Edelman; former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia, Executive Director of the McCain Institute Evelyn Farkas, former Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Ambassador Daniel Fried; former ambassador to Ukraine and Uzbekistan John Herbst; former ambassador to Germany John Kornblum; former Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor David Cramer; former Chief Deputy Minister of Defense for Policy Ian Lodal; former assistant attorney general, co-founder of the USA-Ukraine FoundationRobert McConnell, former Ambassador-at-Large of the former Soviet Union, Columbia University professor Steven Sestanovich; former officer and head of the secret service division of the CIA John Cipher; former ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor; former Deputy Secretary General of NATO, former US Assistant Secretary of Defense and former Ambassador to Russia and NATO Alexander Vershbow.
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