Ukraine Fatigue : Bad for Kyiv, Bad for the West

Summary:

In late 2023 the conflict in the Middle East between Israel and Hamas was displacing Ukraine as the number one pre-occupation for Western leaders, and there was a risk that Ukraine would be pushed into a disadvantageous ceasefire with Russia, or left to fight on without enough Western aid to win. The author argues that the EU needed to take a strategic approach to Ukraine, starting with a clear definition of its goal – Ukraine’s recovery of all its territory and its integration into the EU. Putin could not be allowed to hope that if he kept fighting long enough the West would lose interest in Ukraine. The West needed to give Ukraine both short- and long-term military support, and Europe needed to increase defence budgets and rationalise how they were spent. The EU also needed to plan for Ukraine's recovery needs, and not be squeamish about confiscating frozen Russian assets.

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