“Pentagon and White House officials had low confidence of Ukrainian success, but allowed them (actually, outright facilitated their ability) to go on an offensive that was almost certain to fail,” says Daniel L. Davis, a senior fellow at Defense Priorities. Ukrainian soldiers, he adds, “shouldn’t have been sacrificed for a mission that was all but militarily unattainable.”
“The most prudent course of action now is to stop the offensive, use the rest of their striking force to begin digging in so that they guard against a Russian counterattack this summer,” says Davis. “And then seek a ceasefire to end the killing of their men and destruction of their cities, and try to find a negotiated way out.”
“The Ukrainians achieved a miracle—they saved the Ukrainian state—so they should pocket that victory and try to come to some kind of ceasefire,” adds Goldstein. “I don’t really see major political changes coming in either Moscow or Kyiv, so maybe a Korea-like settlement is the best we can hope for.”
Featuring
More on Eurasia
Events on Russia
