Biden may have to shift to a plan B, but can he do it after insisting the freedom of the global world order is at stake?
By Branko Marcetic
Before the summer, we had the broad outline of what the endgame of the war in Ukraine would look like: Kyiv would train and build up its forces, launch a summer offensive, reclaim as much territory as it could, and finally enter peace talks with the strongest negotiating hand possible and bring the war to a close.
After two months, Ukraine’s counteroffensive is not achieving the level of success Western observers expected. This reflects less of Kyiv’s performance and more of the failure of expectation management by Western political leaders and policymakers.
What is needed now is not a defeatist attitude, but a more sober reflection on the objectives of Ukraine’s counteroffensive, the analytical shortcomings of the definition of success and a determination of what comes next.
This fall, the Biden administration wants Congress to approve $20 billion in additional funding related to the Ukraine war.
Michael A. McCoy for HuffPost
WASHINGTON — With lawmakers questioning American assistance to Ukrainemore intensely than ever, the beleaguered nation is open to more scrutiny of the aid it is receiving to resist Russian invaders, according to Oksana Markarova, the Ukrainian ambassador to the U.S.
