The European Union just approved membership talks with Kyiv; that’s symbolically important.
But the EU’s postponement of critical military assistance is an alarm bell.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg says to prepare for bad news this winter.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz suggests support for Ukraine may be crumbling across Europe.
And there’s faltering confidence in America, as Europeans are beginning to ask whether the strategic interests of the United States end at its border with Mexico.
How did we get here?
We pinned hopes on the summer counteroffensive.
Brave Ukrainians would finally defeat those ill-equipped and poorly led Russian forces.
Then came fall whispers about a stalemate.
It’s suddenly more serious now. Russia is grinding away.
President Vladimir Putin has just reaffirmed his war aim: the destruction of an independent Ukraine. In this next phase, we risk seeing the front line move — in Moscow’s favor.
This would signal the beginning of a moral and strategic disaster.
Photo by YEVGENY BIYATOV/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images
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