As the full-fledged Russian invasion of Ukraine approaches its two-year anniversary, it may help to review where the conflict currently stands. As of Dec. 2023, the Russians have suffered an estimated 320,000 casualties, while the Ukrainian casualty number sits closer to 120,000. And while the war has drained enormous wealth and resources from both sides, the actual line of control on the battlefield itself appears to be solidifying, with neither the Russians nor the Ukrainians able to pierce through frontline defenses.
Straight Arrow News contributor Larry Lindsey contends it is time for Ukraine to sit down and enter into serious negotiations about ending this war. If Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy can’t bring himself to do this, Lindsey argues, then perhaps Zelenskyy is no longer the hero the Ukrainian people need.
There’s something odd going on in Washington and in European capitals with regard to the war in Ukraine. To be frank, they’re all getting tired of footing the bill. We have a hero in President Zelenskyy, who was able to successfully convince the Congress, the president, European governments, to fund money for him. He came to Washington in December to try and help lobby Congress for the next dollop of money, $61 billion. Normally, he would succeed with that. He failed. It was kind of an embarrassing failure. People asked some important questions: What will the $61 billion bring us? Will it bring us victory?
Now, Ukraine has successfully and surprisingly held off the Russians, but to a stalemate. And President Zelenskyy is demanding total victory, the complete removal of Russian forces–not just from the territory that they took in the current conflict, but territories that they got back in 2014, such as Crimea.
It’s also tied up with our immigration debate. And Congress is telling the president that he’s got to change immigration policy, which isn’t a foreign policy, after all, if he wants to get the money he wants for other priorities. That’s how compromise works. But it’s failing.
Now, the Russian media — which admittedly is a propaganda organ —is picking up on some interesting findings. For example, they quoted the Washington Post, not a Russian organ, that Ukraine is a tragedy, that the battlefield in Ukraine is falling apart, and Kyiv refuses to implement U.S. recommendations. Russia declared Ukraine to be a client state of the U.S. so it’s quite understandable that if Ukraine doesn’t do what Washington wants, there will be unhappiness.
