Arms deliveries are no longer used only to defend Ukraine, but also to weaken the potential Russian threat to the West. The goals cannot be separated from each other, it would be irresponsible to do without them.
With every Russian tank destroyed in Ukraine, the West can feel a little safer.
28 prominent German cultural workers have one on Friday open letter to Federal Chancellor Scholz on the website of the “Emma” magazine. In it they express their fear that the war in Ukraine could spread across Europe and even lead to a third world war. “Responsibility for the danger of an escalation to a nuclear conflict” would also have those, it is argued, who “sincerely provided the aggressor with a motive for possibly criminal action”. They are therefore calling on Chancellor Scholz not to allow any further deliveries of heavy weapons to Ukraine and instead to contribute to the conclusion of a ceasefire as soon as possible.
Russia is threatening with its nuclear arsenal
With their letter, the worried German celebrities are reacting to an escalation in the Ukraine war, which has crossed national borders in various ways in recent days. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin bluntly declared in Kyiv last weekend that the goal was to see Russia so weakened that “it could no longer do things like an invasion of Ukraine in the future”. The Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov then reminded on Russian television of “the serious, real and not to be underestimated danger” of a nuclear conflict.
Concerns about the catastrophe of a nuclear escalation in the Ukraine war are serious and respectable. But such warnings must not dominate the political actions of the West – because that would make the West a puppet who would be remotely controlled by the brutal regime in Moscow in front of a deliberately constructed nuclear threat.
How should the West represent its interests vis-à-vis Russia – or any other nuclear power – if it shied away from tactically threatening nuclear escalation in every conflict? Such a maxim for action would be dangerous and would merely invite a dictator like President Putin to “act criminally”. The USA and its allies correctly recognized this.
Biden resolutely seizes the opportunity
You know that the risk of Moscow attacking the all-powerful NATO alliance directly is very small. US President Biden on Thursday dismissed Russian talk about its nuclear weapons as irresponsible. Undeterred by this, he announced a huge additional aid package of $33 billion for Ukraine, of which the lion’s share of over $20 billion should go to further arms deliveries. At the same time, Congress activated a World War II law intended to facilitate the rapid shipment of arms to Europe. Several European governments have also reiterated their efforts to deliver heavy weapons such as tanks and artillery to Ukraine as soon as possible. They did not allow themselves to be deterred by the sudden Russian halt to the supply of natural gas to Poland and Bulgaria.
For the strategists in the White House, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has turned from a mere threat into an opportunity in the past two months. And President Biden seems determined to seize that opportunity. Thanks to the courageous will of the Ukrainians to defend themselves and the unexpected shortcomings of the Russian armed forces, a scenario has suddenly emerged that Western geostrategists would hardly have dreamed of just a few months ago: the West can simply deliver money and arms without a significant risk of loss of life , contribute to a possible – as yet by no means certain – defeat and long-lasting weakening of Russia’s potential for military and political aggression. It would be naïve to think that a responsible American government would miss this opportunity.