Ukraine should pivot from offense to defense and rebuild what it controls, expert says
Geoff Bennett:
The front lines of the war have hardly moved in the last few months, but could the course of the war change in 2024?
We have two perspectives now, from Charles Kupchan, who served in the National Security Council staff during the Obama and Clinton administrations. He's now a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a Georgetown University professor. And Andrea Kendall-Taylor is a former senior intelligence official who focused on Russia and Eurasia. She's now at the Center for a New American Security. That's a bipartisan part as a national security and defense policy think tank.
Thank you both for being here.
The war in Ukraine has been described to me by a defense official as a war of inches at this point, that even with the extensive support that the West has given Ukrainian forces, there have not been any significant breakthroughs.
Andrea, is what we're seeing, is this the definition of a stalemate?
Andrea Kendall-Taylor, Center For a New American Security: Well, I think that's certainly the narrative that is coalescing.
And it is true, as you say, that the front lines haven't meaningfully changed in many, many months. But I think that narrative of a stalemate is both wrong and it's unproductive. It's wrong because both Ukraine and Russia are really in a race to rebuild their offensive capability. We know that Russia has not changed its objectives in Ukraine.
And if given any breathing room, it will progress in its goal to subjugate Ukraine. And I think it's unproductive because it's leading to a greater sense of fatigue both here in Washington and in other European capitals in terms of their willingness to sustain the military aid for Ukraine.
So, rather than stalemate, I actually think 2024 is a really critical year that will shape the trajectory of this conflict. And that's why it's so important that U.S. Congress passes the legislation to sustain the military aid to Ukraine.
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