Will the international community keep up interest in supporting Ukraine?

Photo credit: From anonymous source. Ukraine.

In case anyone is beginning to believe Russia is either losing interest or ceding ground in Ukraine neither wish is coming true. The international community’s interest level may be coming into question at the same time.

Russia is demonstrating that its version of lessons learned is to destroy territory its cumbersome and inept Army cannot take through operations. One such example is its destruction of the Hryhorii Skovoroda Literary Memorial Museum in Skovorodynivka.  The “centuries-old” building is an example of the type of attack that most armies avoid in hopes of gaining the territory and using it.

Vladimir Putin’s lapdog military leaders are intent on destroying cities that will prove fundamentally useless to them, valuing simply taking them more than anything else.

Russia has lost perhaps 30,000 troops in just the first four months of the country’s invasion of Ukraine. This fact is likely guiding the move to destroy that which they cannot take through combat. The effect will be that all of the potential of those cities is lost to the Russians and thus makes the idiocy of this invasion all the more clear.

There has long been a fear that the international community, most notably the U.S. and its NATO allies, itself would begin to lose interest or begin to pullback on sanctions or military support.

Germany has proven slow to provide tanks and it has embarrassingly failed to provide ammunition with its weapons systems, likely exposing problems in its defense industry rather than a simple unwillingness to provide the munitions.

However, Robert Habeck, Germany’s economy minister, said the solidity of sanctions is “starting to crumble,” as Hungary has been blocking actions aimed at stopping oil imports.

Putin’s regime itself is taking actions to test the resolve of the Europeans in maintaining the regime of sanctions.

The Russians said they will discontinue gas supplies to Gas Terra, a Dutch gas trading company.

Russia is apparently threatening to halt supplying gas to Danish energy company Orsted if it refuses to pay in Russian roubles.

The regime has already stopped gas exports to Bulgaria and Poland, in April, as retribution for sanctions.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy indicated that France may be “blackmailed” by Russia’ attempts to use food security worries to get France to pullback on sanctions.

For its part, the U.S. is considering sending Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (MLRS) to Ukraine to add range and flexibility while attacking Russian forces. With its rockets, MLRS launchers can hit targets to more than 185 miles from their targets with a high level of precision.  It also has rockets that are designed to hit targets up to about 40 miles away.

Interestingly, the BBC quotes President Joe Biden as promising not to send systems that can strike into Russian territory. This despite the fact that Russia continues to pour in forces from Russia. Why wouldn’t the Ukrainians want to attack the source?

Presumably this absurd restriction is in keeping with Biden’s desire to not antagonize Putin. We have to wonder if Biden really wants Ukraine to achieve victory or whether he has decided that a long slog toward a stalemate is more preferable.

In an embarrassing development, some, such as former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, urged Ukraine to cede ground gained by the Russians in order to limit the conflict. Ukraine shows no sign of desiring anything short of victory --- without ceding any ground.

Interestingly, when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, the international coalition, that was arrayed by President George H.W. Bush, did not first seek to give Hussein’s regime a small portion of Kuwait in exchange for Iraq’s departure. Ukraine also ought not have to give up part of their own country because Russia’s dictator chose to invade.

The coming months will further test the internationally community that initially stood firm against the illegal aggressive war by Putin. The international community, especially in Europe, allowed itself to become dependent on Russia for its only substantial export, oil and gas, but this is not irretrievably the case.

Ukraine will continue to struggle. It remains to be seen if the U.S. and its allies in this effort remain as resolute.

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James Hutton is a former assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and is a retired colonel in the U.S. Army. Follow him on Twitter @jehutton, GETTR @jehutton, and Truth Social @jehutton