Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
Editorials & Other Articles
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Jeanne Shaheen and Mitch McConnell-Russia isn't winning. Putin wants to fool you.
Putin’s hope is that U.S. will somehow convince itself that Ukraine can’t succeed. Don’t fall for it.
Link to tweet
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/12/22/putin-russia-trump-war-ukraine
After almost four years of fighting, Russia has lost about a third of its strategic bombers, and it continues to lose equipment at significantly higher rates than Ukraine. It is Russia that has borne more than 1 million casualties, dead and wounded, in grinding battles of its own making. Pundits who predicted a quick Ukrainian defeat were wrong in 2022, and they are wrong today.
Along the way, Republicans and Democrats alike criticized the Biden administration’s excessive caution in refusing to provide Ukraine the weapons it needed when they could have made the biggest difference. It is more than plausible that the Ukrainians could have achieved a decisive victory and lasting peace if they were simply granted the fighter jets, air defenses and long-range weapons when they initially requested them from President Joe Biden. But American assistance was often too little, too late.....
Russians are paying an extraordinary economic price in pursuit of Putin’s lust for glory and blood. Russian oil and gas revenue has fallen more than 30 percent due to attacks on its energy infrastructure. The Kremlin has been selling gold to stabilize its finances and shield elites from the true cost of Putin’s war. And roughly a quarter of Russian companies are now bankrupt or at risk. Russia cannot afford the war it is fighting, but it can prolong it.
Putin may be playing for time, but he is not dragging out this conflict because it is his preferred tactic. He is dragging it out because he cannot achieve a decisive victory. He’s hoping that slow, grinding attrition will divide the West.....
Additional investment in the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative — which received overwhelming bipartisan support in the National Defense Authorization Act and the Senate’s defense appropriations, and which is spent here at home to reconstitute America’s defense industrial capacity — would bolster European contributions and help ensure Ukraine has the air defenses, long-range weapons and industrial support needed to sustain a position of strength.
Putin is betting the U.S. will talk itself into believing Ukraine cannot succeed. The past four years show the opposite. Ukraine has defied every expectation, including our own. Kyiv is not losing, and Moscow is not winning. It is up to Washington to match Ukraine’s resolve with the clarity this moment demands.
Along the way, Republicans and Democrats alike criticized the Biden administration’s excessive caution in refusing to provide Ukraine the weapons it needed when they could have made the biggest difference. It is more than plausible that the Ukrainians could have achieved a decisive victory and lasting peace if they were simply granted the fighter jets, air defenses and long-range weapons when they initially requested them from President Joe Biden. But American assistance was often too little, too late.....
Russians are paying an extraordinary economic price in pursuit of Putin’s lust for glory and blood. Russian oil and gas revenue has fallen more than 30 percent due to attacks on its energy infrastructure. The Kremlin has been selling gold to stabilize its finances and shield elites from the true cost of Putin’s war. And roughly a quarter of Russian companies are now bankrupt or at risk. Russia cannot afford the war it is fighting, but it can prolong it.
Putin may be playing for time, but he is not dragging out this conflict because it is his preferred tactic. He is dragging it out because he cannot achieve a decisive victory. He’s hoping that slow, grinding attrition will divide the West.....
Additional investment in the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative — which received overwhelming bipartisan support in the National Defense Authorization Act and the Senate’s defense appropriations, and which is spent here at home to reconstitute America’s defense industrial capacity — would bolster European contributions and help ensure Ukraine has the air defenses, long-range weapons and industrial support needed to sustain a position of strength.
Putin is betting the U.S. will talk itself into believing Ukraine cannot succeed. The past four years show the opposite. Ukraine has defied every expectation, including our own. Kyiv is not losing, and Moscow is not winning. It is up to Washington to match Ukraine’s resolve with the clarity this moment demands.