Ukraine needs more weapons and support from the West

Volodymyr Zelensky awards The Order of Liberty to Boris Johnson in Kyiv last August. Picture: AFP

It has been a year since Vladimir Putin launched his vicious and unnecessary war in Ukraine. So far he has failed. He has failed to take Kyiv. He has failed to occupy the Kharkiv region. He has failed to remain in Kherson.

Putin’s war has cost the lives of at least 60,000 Russian troops. In the areas he has occupied, he has created a new Flanders fields of trenches and blasted trees, where months of effort and bloodshed produce gains that can be measured in yards. He has been forced to such desperate expedients as sending prisoners to the front and is running low on the technically advanced weaponry he needs.

The seemingly unstoppable force of the Russian military is breaking on the immovable object of Ukrainian resistance. We – elected representatives of the US and the UK – remain lost in admiration for Ukrainian heroism and leadership.

Yet it remains possible for Putin to achieve something he can call victory. By hanging on to some pieces of land he has conquered, he shows the world that borders can be changed by force.

All Putin needs to do to claim victory is continue the cynical policy he has followed since his first invasion of 2014 – to use his foothold in Ukraine to destabilise the whole country.

Unless Russian troops are purged from Ukrainian territory Putin will bide his time, waiting to attack again. He will continue to menace the Georgians, Moldovans, Balts and everyone living in the periphery of the old Soviet empire. Unless he is fully defeated in Ukraine, Putin’s revanchist ambitions won’t be checked.

We must accelerate Western support for the Ukrainians and give them what they need to finish the job. Ukraine’s armed forces have fought and continue to fight like lions, and the credit belongs to them.

But there is no doubt Western equipment has been invaluable. The story of the past year is that sooner or later we must give them what they need – from anti-tank missiles to rocket launchers to tanks.

It’s absurd for Western supporters to keep asking the Ukrainians – as they did at the Munich Security Conference – “How long is this war going to take?”. The answer to that question is, to a large extent, determined by the West.

There is no conceivable reason to delay getting weapons to Ukraine. Those machines – Abrams, Challengers and Leopard tanks – are needed to make a difference now, not next year. Training Ukrainian fighters to fly advanced NATO jets is admirable, but why are we doing it before we’ve even decided to give them the planes? Let’s cut to the chase and give them the planes too.

The Ukrainians have shown what they can do. They have the energy and courage to sweep Putin from their lands, and they have the inestimable psychological advantage that they are fighting for hearth and home. With the right tools, including more long-range artillery, they can punch through the land bridge, cut off Crimea, and deal a knockout blow to Russian forces.

After a year of slaughter, the West needs to do more to show the people of Russia what they are losing under Putin’s misrule. We should be tightening sanctions on oil and gas. We should be making it clear to Putin’s entire war machine – as well as the regime in the Kremlin – that they will be held accountable for their crimes. The torture, rape and indiscriminate killing the Russians have sponsored won’t be ignored. We must show them the mills of justice may grind slowly, but they grind small.

Joe Biden made clear on his trip to Kyiv that Russia has committed crimes against humanity. US Vice-President Kamala Harris said the same at Munich. For these statements to have meaning, we must act swiftly and decisively.

We should designate Russia a state sponsor of terrorism, placing that country where it now rightly belongs – on a list including Iran, Cuba, North Korea and Syria. We should designate the infamous and bloodthirsty Wagner Group as a foreign terrorist organisation. It is a badge now richly deserved and long overdue.

But above all we must give the Ukrainians what they need to win this year. By ensuring Ukraine wins and Putin finally fails, we are making the best and most financially efficient investment in the long-term security not only of the Euro-Atlantic area, but of the whole world.

The Ukrainians are fighting for more than their own freedom. They are fighting for the cause of freedom around the world. We should give them what they need. Not next month or next year, but now.

The Wall Street Journal

Boris Johnson served as British prime minister, 2019-22. Lindsey Graham is a Republican senator from South Carolina