President Volodymyr Zelenskyy believes that Ukraine and its allies are very close to the moment when Russia can be forced to end or at least halt the war, but this would require the United States to impose tough sanctions on Russia.
Our operation Spider’s Web… even though they [the Russians – ed.] are furious, they understand everything – that if there are cases like the one involving 20,000 rockets [that the US had planned to send to Ukraine but redirected to the Middle East – ed.], then we’ll rely on our own strength… We don’t want the war to continue, but we’ll fight for ourselves if that is the only way out.
We’re very close. We need strong support from the United States. The US needs unity with Europe and still needs to put pressure on Putin. He doesn’t want to end the war, but he can end the war under pressure from partners. In my opinion, that gives us a chance. And this doesn’t sound pessimistic at all – I’m talking about reality."
The thing that is so impressive about Ukraine and the coalition it has formed is that they actually don’t need the US to directly be an ally to win this war. They should have not had to demonstrate this capacity, but the capacity has been thoroughly demonstrated.
If US support is the only thing that can cause Ukraine to win, then it’s pretty certain with our current leadership that it won’t happen.
The thing that is so impressive about Ukraine and the coalition it has formed is that they actually don’t need the US to directly be an ally to win this war. They should have not had to demonstrate this capacity, but the capacity has been thoroughly demonstrated.