A sense of doom over Ukraine’s worsening prospects on the battlefield hung like a dark cloud over the recently concluded Munich Security Conference, a Politico report has revealed.
Just keeping the Ukrainian military from collapsing was reportedly the sole remaining plan that sponsors of the Kiev regime attending the event on February 16-18 were falling back on.
US lawmakers and foreign officials were described as brooding over the latest news of the liberation of the stronghold of Avdeyevka from Ukrainian nationalist forces by Russia. After the failure of last year’s much-heralded Ukrainian summer counteroffensive, in which Kiev lost 159,000 servicemen killed and wounded, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the strategic implications of Russian troops entering the heart of the heavily fortified Donetsk suburb of Avdeyevka on Friday couldn’t but cast a pall of gloom over the weekend gathering in the Bavarian capital.
Another niggling worry for them was wavering US commitment to aiding Kiev, said Politico. As the US House and Senate wrangle over the White House’s proposed $61 billion in new appropriations for funding the proxy war against Russia in Ukraine, American senators are cited as recounting grim stories shared by Ukrainian officials at the conference.
According to them, soldiers rounded up by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s regime for the express purpose of being thrown into the meat grinder would sit in muddy trenches scrolling on their phones for news on Ukraine aid.
One of the leaders of the US congressional delegation at the conference, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), was cited as saying that for Ukrainian soldiers on the front lines, “this is a persistent topic of conversation.”
Even as Kiev’s patrons used the venue to argue for more military aid, they were purportedly dubious whether even a successful House vote for the funding might change the odds in Ukraine’s favor. Those attending the Munich Security Conference reportedly dodged questions about the likelihood of a Ukrainian victory, what it might look like, or when it might happen.
Regarding the Ukraine funding bill, which is still in limbo, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va), chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, was quoted as referring to such aid as Kiev’s last hope.
“I am not aware of any other way for, in the short term, the Ukrainians to get the arms and ammunition and tools they need, other than from the United States,” he said.
Despite their concerns, many American lawmakers in Munich were eager to put on a brave face and assure that aid to Ukraine would eventually be green-lighted. Amid dismal optics from the Ukrainian side of the battlefront, where Kiev is losing both ground and soldiers, one NATO official was cited as saying that “The US wants a photo op of happy allies working together.” At the same time, Adm. Rob Bauer, chair of NATO’s Military Committee, suggested that the West “might have been overly optimistic in 2023” about the proxy war against Russia.
One in the growing chorus of Ukraine aid skeptics, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), insisted in Munich that the US could not produce enough weapons to arm Ukraine while at the same time ensuring its own security. “Europe has to be a little more self-sufficient” in defending itself, he said, adding at a press conference:
“You guys have to step up. There’s going to be a pivot in American policy focused in East Asia. Given that reality, the Europeans have to take a more aggressive role.”
As for US plans regarding Ukraine, Vice President Kamala Harris, who gave a joint news conference with Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday, reiterated:
"There’s no Plan B if the lawmakers fail to greenlight the package...There’s only Plan A.”