JRL NEWSWATCH: “It’s Time to End Magical Thinking About Russia’s Defeat” – WSJ

“Putin has withstood the West’s best efforts to reverse his invasion of Ukraine, and his hold on power is firm. The U.S. and its allies need a new strategy: containment.”

“… Washington and its allies have been remarkably effective at tackling the most urgent aspects of this problem: staving off Ukraine’s collapse, keeping it well-supplied with advanced weapons and real-time intelligence, and devising sanctions …. [N]ow is the time … [for] a long-term strategy that increases and sustains … pressure on [a] rogue … Kremlin. … What Western leaders conspicuously haven’t done is level with their publics about the enduring nature of the threat from an emboldened, revisionist Russia. …. …[C]ontainment today would mean continuing … sanctions, isolating Russia diplomatically, preventing the Kremlin from interfering in our own domestic politics, and strengthening NATO deterrence and defense capabilities, including sustained U.S.-European reinvestment in our defense-industrial base. It would also mean mitigating all of the damage — diplomatic, informational, military and economic — caused by Putin’s war. … Ukraine has withstood the Russian onslaught … [while] reduc[ing] an entire decade of Russian military modernization to dust. Keeping Ukraine in the fight and supplying it with weapons and ammunition … is … the most urgent — and cost-effective — element of Western strategy. No less crucial is helping Ukraine to navigate toward its rightful place in Europe. …”

The United States and allies will find it essential to maintain cohesion and resolve across time.

An end of active hostilities in Ukraine will not resolve the confrontation between Russia and the West.

Ukraine and its allies are right to seek a rising, prosperous, independent, secure Ukraine that is fully integrated into Europe politically and economically.

The Kremlin would regard that development as a defeat for the Kremlin and can be expected to do everything it can to try to prevent it.

Click here for: “It’s Time to End Magical Thinking About Russia’s Defeat; Putin has withstood the West’s best efforts to reverse his invasion of Ukraine, and his hold on power is firm. The U.S. and its allies need a new strategy: containment.” – WSJ/ Eugene Rumer, Andrew S. Weiss