Vladimir Putin let Western leaders know what he thought of their G7 meeting in Bavaria, where they're discussing "possible attempts" at further sanctions on Russian oil. He bombed Ukraine's capital city.
Putin pointedly demonstrated his opinion of international law and the West's even scanty efforts at defending freedom and democracy in Eastern Europe, although he's largely untroubled by the prospect of more sanctions. (G7 did announce a ban on imports of Russian gold.) Putin's oil exports have nosedived since its invasion of Ukraine in late February, yet his revenue from oil has increased because of skyrocketing fuel prices. Nevertheless, even Western discussions of slapping Vladimir's wrist are more than the Russian autocrat can take. And when that happens, the missiles fly.
They have now leveled Sievierodonetsk, from which Ukrainian forces have withdrawn after suffering heavy losses. Ninety percent of the city's buildings have been destroyed and only 8,000 of its once 108,000 residents remain. Once Russia captures Sievierodonetsk's twin city of Lysychansk, thus completing its occupation of the Luhansk province, its forces will move south to occupy the Donetsk province as well, giving Putin total control of Ukraine's Donbas.
Russia's warlord struck not only Kyiv this weekend (photo, NYT), but also Kharkiv in northeast Ukraine. President Zelensky said in his nightly address that 45 Russian missiles had also hit Lviv, Chernihiv, Mykolaiv, and the Zhytomyr region. Elsewhere, reports The Kyiv Independent, "Russia plans to increase the number of operational and tactical aircraft in Belarus." That, according to Ukraine's Defense Ministry's Intelligence Directorate, and one can easily imagine why the "planning."
Asked by a reporter about Russia's missile strike on Kyiv, President Biden answered, "Itβs more of their barbarism." Biden is in Bavaria with his fellow G7 leaders of the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Canada, Italy and Japan "attempt[ing] to prepare [them] for a long slog in Ukraine." These reports raise two essential questions.
While it's true that Russia's weekend missile strikes are yet more evidence of its "barbarism," is it just as true that confronting Putin's warmongering is best achieved by oil sanctions, which have actually enhanced Putin's profits while harming Western consumers? And is Ukraine's "long slog" of a war unavoidable, as Biden insists?
The answer to both is no. Barbarism is best met in kind β there is no other kind β and Russia's war on Ukraine need not be a long one. The West has two options. It can supply the sinless defender with dozens of fighter jets and every type of weapon in its arsenals, excepting nuclear, or it can intervene directly with airpower, or ground troops, or both.
World War III is upon us, and before us is the free world's greatest threat since II. Putin started it, and the West must finish it in the same manner it finished Hitler and Tojo, stopping short of only Hiroshima and Nagasaki.