Avoid “Stalemate on Battlefield”.
Heusgen calls for military aid to go “all the way”.
04/17/2023, 12:25 p.m
The head of the Munich Security Conference warns that military support for Ukraine must be much more determined. This is essential for the planned counter-offensive. According to Heusgen, the arms deliveries also send an important signal to Russia’s President Putin.
The chairman of the Munich Security Conference, Christoph Heusgen, and former foreign and security policy advisors to the US, Britain, France and Italy have called on the West to go “all in” in providing military support to Ukraine. As the security experts wrote in a guest article for the “Tagesspiegel” on Monday, the “current level of gradual and hesitant military support” would only cause a “stalemate on the battlefield.”
Heusgen, former foreign policy adviser to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and his colleagues stressed that a victory for Ukraine was “not inevitable”. Ukraine needs “tanks, longer-range missiles and fighter jets,” the authors write. This is necessary “in order to undertake a successful counter-offensive in combination with these weapon systems, which will clear the way to a Ukrainian victory and successful negotiations for a peace on acceptable terms”.
According to Heusgen’s ex-advisers, Russian President Vladimir Putin is counting on “his determination being stronger than that of his opponents and that he can win a war of attrition”. The West must prove to him again that he is wrong. A Russian victory would “set a dangerous precedent for territorial conquests elsewhere.”
Authors are skeptical about Beijing’s peace plans
In addition, the authors advised mistrust of Beijing with regard to possible peace negotiations. China is already supporting Putin’s efforts by supplying him with non-lethal armaments and allowing North Korea to deliver arms to Russia. China’s President Xi Jinping also has an interest in “keeping Putin in power”.
In addition to Heusgen, the guest article was written by ex-Obama adviser James Jones, former NATO Commander-in-Chief for Transformation and French military adviser Stéphane Abrial, former Italian foreign policy adviser Stefano Stefanini, and Simon McDonald, former Secretary of State at the British Foreign Office.