"Russia," writes the Independent, "has repeatedly blamed the West for prolonging the conflict." Today, Russia's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, repeated the blame again, saying that the more weapons the West sends to Ukraine, the longer the war will last.
The Independent is correct, Russia is right, and Lavrov is spot on. The West is prolonging the war. Without mercy it has shorted Ukrainian forces of the weapons they need. For months President Zelensky has begged for the West's longest-range artillery, thousands not dozens of drones to knock out Russia's artillery, and long ago he pleaded for fighter jets, though on that, he appears to have given up. The West won't budge. It has opted to starve Ukraine of most essential weaponry.
And now the West is accepting that Ukraine will lose territory, as CNN noted in a recent segment. At a minimum, this would be the entire Donbas and the Ukrainian South, from Mariupol to Odessa. But the nation will lose more than territory; it will lose its ports for the export of agricultural and other goods, permanently wrecking Ukraine's economy. This courageous country, battling for survival, will have little to offer the European Union — another loss.
In effect, the West has sided with Russia. It will continue depriving Ukraine of the weapons it needs, thus permitting Russia to kill more Ukrainians, grab more land and inflict more injury on Ukraine's economy. It'll persist in pressing for negotiations in which Ukraine will have no leverage. It will forgive Vladimir Putin for having grossly violated international law and for having massacred thousands of Ukrainian citizens. It will do whatever is necessary to make economic life easier for its citizens.
Earlier I heard a member of Ukraine's parliament say in an interview (the aforementioned CNN segment) that the West hasn't "the courage to stand up to Russia." There can be no more accurate assessment of an essentially passive position. Early in the war we heard gallant words from the West about freedom, democracy, self-determination. In fact we still hear these words and those touching sentiments from Western leaders. But they're hollow, disingenuous and, increasingly, words of treachery. The West is unreasonably, unfathomably frightened of Vladimir Putin. It would also like to have his oil back.
Perhaps I'll move to Ukraine. I'd rather live in a country that lives up to its words, in a country that means them, in a country willing to stand up to Russia. The West is without each. I am ashamed of President Joe Biden and dumbfounded by Britain's Gen Patrick Sanders, who said, quoting The NY Times: "'This is our 1937 moment',... making reference to Western Europe’s failure to confront Nazi Germany’s territorial expansion in the years preceding World War II. 'We are not at war, but we must act rapidly so that we aren’t drawn into one through a failure to contain territorial expansion.'"
My dear General, the West, today, is doing precisely that.