Ukraine Advances: How the West Can Help

Kurt Volker

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Vladimir Putin has become the first Russian leader since World War II to have provoked an invasion of his own country and to have lost sovereign territory. Having previously compared himself to Peter and Catherine the Great, Putin may end up looking more like the final czar, Nicholas II.

Ukraine’s Kursk offensive has already achieved several goals. It has:

• Demonstrated that Russian forces are stretched to the maximum of their abilities, incapable of both attacking Ukraine and protecting Russia simultaneously, and incapable of escalating their war effort.
• Proved that Western fears of Russian escalation are unfounded: The Kremlin has no ability to escalate.
• Forced Russia to pull some forces out of Ukraine in order to defend inside Russia.
• Destroyed Putin’s narrative that Russia’s war of aggression is merely a “special military operation” with no real costs to Russia. (Over 200,000 Russian civilians have had to be evacuated.)
• Demonstrated that billions of dollars in Western military and financial assistance are being put to good use.
• Given a much-needed morale boost to the Ukrainian people.
• And undermined the assumption that future peace negotiations are only about how much territory Ukraine cedes to Russia. (Now it is about mutual force withdrawals.)

Despite these tactical gains, however, we are still far from an end to the fighting, let alone a just and lasting peace. Russia bombs Ukrainian cities and civilian infrastructure on a daily basis, attacks along the front line in eastern Ukraine, occupies significant Ukrainian territory (around 20%) and insists on eradicating Ukraine as a people and as an independent state.