Expert: The West is at a crossroads in its support for Ukraine

Many experts expected the war to enter a quieter phase as winter set in on the battlefield in Ukraine, but the surprisingly mild winter so far has made the battlefield more dynamic than expected, highlighting the important decisions that need to be made in the West, according to CNN analyst Stephen Collinson.

Time is running out for the United States and its allies to send in more powerful weapons and train Ukrainian soldiers how to use them, before the second and possibly decisive year of the war. In anticipation of a possible new violent Russian attack.

– We are facing the collapse of the world as we know it, Olena Zelenska, First Lady of Ukraine, said during the World Economic Forum in Davos earlier this week.

I asked the world and financial leaders present to try to see the war through the eyes of those whose lives have been thrown into chaos.

Here you can read all about the war in Ukraine!

New gun laws

Ukraine’s military support has become much stronger than it was at the initial stage of the war. Ukrainian soldiers are receiving training in several European countries, including Norway, and both the United States and Germany have promised to send armored personnel carriers and the Patriot air defense system to the country.

According to Collinson, there are now many questions West must ask itself:

How far should NATO go in responding to Ukraine’s increasingly desperate plea for more advanced and advanced offensive weapons? What is Russia’s red line before Western actions lead to a massive escalation, potentially including the use of tactical nuclear weapons, and usher in a terrifying new era of War and the risk of a conflagration between the United States and Russia?

Fire is an expression meaning fire, a global conflagration, a worldwide catastrophe, according to Large Norwegian Encyclopedia.

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Previous NATO summit: Ukraine needs more weapons

Wesley Clark, the former military chief of NATO, has no doubts that the West must do more, not less.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Photo: Jacquelyn Martin/AP/NTB Photo: NTB

We must give Ukraine arms to expel Russia. Russia does not stop. Putin is amassing more forces. Clark warns CNN that he is planning a new attack.

– It’s great that we give them ten tanks from Great Britain. Ten tanks?! Ukraine needs 300,500 tanks. It’s great that we are trying to give them more howitzers (artillery ed. Note). not enough. He says we have to take this matter seriously.

There are many discussions going on across the Atlantic about what – and how much – to support Ukraine. As recently as this week, US President Joe Biden and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte met, with the latter promising that the country would join the US-German initiative to send Patriot batteries to Ukraine.

Zelensky asks for more help with weapons

More promises are expected for Ukraine at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Especially after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke out on Wednesday night and demanded progress on arms aid.

– We stand strong, despite the daily battles in eastern Ukraine, Zelensky said in his video address to the World Economic Forum in Davos, according to NTB.

The Ukrainian president went on to say that Russia is “exporting terrorism” and also said he was not worried about his personal safety.

– Zelensky said that the time that the free world spends thinking, the terrorist state uses to kill.

According to the Ukrainian president, foreign governments hesitated again and again a lot in confronting Russia, before they finally ended up making the right decisions.

Tyranny escapes democracy. Zelensky said Western tank deliveries should take place before Russia’s new tank invasion.

Stoltenberg expects more weapons

On Friday, there will also be a US-led NATO meeting where Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg expects there will be new agreements on the delivery of heavy weapons to Ukraine.

“What has been announced in recent days is significant, and I expect there will be more,” Stoltenberg told NTB earlier this week.

The head of NATO justifies the need for weapons by the fact that Ukraine is going through a critical stage in the war.

– We are witnessing fierce battles in the east in Solidar and Bakhmut, and we are also witnessing brutal air strikes against Ukrainian cities. Then Stoltenberg said that the Ukrainians needed more weapons.

Ukrainian demands

Russia is unlikely to give up any occupied territory without a fight, senior researcher Carsten Friis at the Norwegian Foreign Policy Institute (Nupi) tells NTB. Here is Russian President Vladimir Putin. Photo: Sputnik/Reuters

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Ukraine demanded that Russia give up Crimea, which it annexed in 2014, before it entered into negotiations with the country. Many experts believe it would be impossible for Russia to agree.

Russia is unlikely to give up any occupied territory without a fight, senior researcher Carsten Friis at the Norwegian Foreign Policy Institute (NUBI) told NTB on Monday.

International law expert Cecilie Helstveit, who recently published Bad News from the Eastern Front about the war in Ukraine, agrees.

– She told NTB that it is completely unrealistic for Russia to agree to negotiate such a solution.

Perhaps it is heading towards frozen conflict

In any case, she believes that it is not beneficial for Ukraine to enter into negotiations, because the situation is now on the battlefield.

– As it is now, it is Russia that has an interest in negotiations and a cease-fire, you say.

Helstveit believes that the most realistic scenario in Ukraine is probably a frozen conflict.

– This means that Ukraine will be robbed of its eastern regions. Putin will be able to tout this as the kind of “victory that made the war worth it,” and Russia will be treated as a country that engages in illegal annexation by military force, she told NTB.