On Jan. 14, 2025, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte told the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Security and Defense, that: “The future of European and global security hinges on the outcome of the war in Ukraine. […] I don’t know how or when the war will end, but I do know peace will not last if Putin gets his way in Ukraine, because then he will press ahead.”
Five days earlier, on Jan. 9, the American Enterprise Institute, a US policy think tank, issued a revealing report titled: “Dollars and Sense: America’s Interest in a Ukrainian Victory.” It affirmed that by providing aid to Ukraine “Washington may, in fact, be deterring a direct war between NATO and Moscow, one in which US forces would have to fight”.
The report provided the following illuminating statistics:
“We conclude that maintaining security in a strategic environment in which Russia is victorious over Ukraine could cost the United States an additional $808 billion in defense spending over five years.”
Since 2022, by contrast, the United States Congress has provided $112 billion to the Department of Defense to assist Kyiv. That means the aid provided to Ukraine through the Pentagon is less than 14 percent of what it would cost Washington to defend Europe against a victorious Russia. The bulk of that $112 billion was spent at home on domestic weapons production. Put another way, allowing Russia to defeat Ukraine would cost the United States about seven times more than preventing a Russian victory”.
Ukrainian Soldier Escorting Conscripts Shot
At the World Economic Forum in Davos, NATO’s Secretary General stated on Jan. 23, that if Ukraine were to lose the war, the cost to restore NATO’s credibility and deterrence “will not be billions extra. It will be trillions extra”.
It is widely accepted that the cost of abandoning Ukraine would be astronomical for the West since Ukraine is not only defending its own existence but also preventing Russia from expanding its land grab and possibly triggering a Third World War. An outcome that would obliterate countless precious lives and result in tremendous worldwide devastation.
Notwithstanding the high stakes at hand, some political advisers and pseudo-experts believe that a policy resulting in the appeasement of an authoritarian dictator with imperialistic ambitions is the safest course of action.
They have obviously not learned the lessons of history, including British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s naïve declaration: “Peace for our time” after signing in 1938 the Munich Agreement to appease Hitler, which resulted, a year later, in the Second World War.
In contrast, the unequivocal declaration “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall” made by US President Ronald Reagan at the Brandenburg Gate in 1987 ultimately led to the fall of the Berlin Wall and later the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Today, US President Donald Trump could change the course of history for the benefit of all democratic countries by unequivocally making the following powerful declaration: “Mr. Putin, get out of Ukraine”.
If the Kremlin senses that this is not a bluff, then Russia will leave Ukraine, and it will finally be possible to achieve true peace.
In addition, real peace will require NATO member countries, starting with the US to: provide Ukraine the weapons it needs to effectively protect its airspace and liberate its territories; offer Ukraine NATO membership; strengthen the sanctions against Russia; and confiscate Russia’s frozen assets abroad to ensure Ukraine’s victory and successful reconstruction.
The views expressed in this opinion article are the author’s and not necessarily those of Kyiv Post.
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