Biden needs to give Putin something to worry about

Russian President Vladimir Putin is doubling down on his war against Ukraine. In recent days and weeks, the Kremlin has telegraphed that the city of Kharkiv and Chassiv Yar in the Donbass region will be on Putin’s next list to be “liberated,” or reduced to a pile of rubble.

Moscow continues to bomb both cities as it prepares to launch a new major counteroffensive in the spring or summer. On Monday, Moscow reinforced its message by destroying the missile. private tv tower In Kharkov. At the beginning of April, 8 Ukrainian civilians The Russian attack left 10 people dead and injured in the city.

Olga Skabeeva, Putin’s favorite TV propagandist, launched the latest attack It took place in Kharkiv as part of Russia’s efforts to create a “sanitary zone” in eastern Ukraine. In other words, Putin’s “iron doll” admits that the Russian government is preparing to intensify the Kremlin’s genocidal war against the Ukrainian people.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also repeated the same ominous words at the same time. As the Institute for the Study of War observed, it was no coincidence. Foreign Minister Lavrov bluntly claimed that Kharkiv “plays an important role” in Moscow’s plan to establish a “sanitary zone” in Ukraine.

However, the city of Kharkov and Chasiv Yar are intended only as stepping stones. President Putin will not stop his genocidal military operations until all of Ukraine has been transformed into a so-called “sanitary zone,” and then he will look to the west and south to Moldova and Georgia to complete the trifecta.

President Biden and his national security team are at a critical moment in Ukraine. Simply funding the war in Ukraine without changing power relations is likely to lead to Putin winning over time.

A storm is brewing in Ukraine, and the president must decide whether he has the will and conviction to confront it and see Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his generals through to victory. Yes, Biden extended a lifeline to Ukraine, but he did it at the same time. eternal war Kiev cannot win in the end.

Fund defensive wars like we do warned repeatedly, was not enough to stop Putin in Ukraine and other parts of Eastern Europe and the Caucasus region. On the other hand, a Ukrainian victory is possible and will happen. But that outcome will require a fundamental shift in the strategic thinking of the White House and the president’s national security team.

Biden can get there by drawing a red line in Kharkiv. For now, the city still remains. However, if left unchecked, the landscape will soon become as devastated as Bakhmut and Avdiivka, which are now subjected to indiscriminate Russian shelling.

It’s time for Washington and Brussels to be bold. The money is there, and Biden must now turn it into a winner for Ukraine.

A no-fly zone enforced by NATO to protect Ukraine’s main population centers from Russian missile and drone attacks is one course of action to be considered. The West cannot continue to look the other way as President Putin deliberately targets civilians and commits mass atrocities in Ukraine. weaponize food and cause a major incident ecological disaster Last June, they destroyed the Nova Kakhovka dam on the southern Dnipro River near Kherson.

If Biden fails to do so, France could lead the effort. Emmanuel Macron has recognized that defeating President Putin in Ukraine is important for the security of Europe as a whole, and this is a great achievement.

Ukraine deserves the same level of robust protection that Israel has received from the United States and Britain, deterring Russian threats to the Baltic states and Poland for the time being. You can set clear boundaries. U.S. and NATO air assets would only be used to shoot down Russian drones, cruise missiles, and intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) that target civilian population centers and infrastructure in Ukraine.

Biden could also send a clear message to Putin by publicly stating his support for a victory in Ukraine and the withdrawal of all Russian troops from Donbass and Crimea. As retired Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, former commander of Army Europe, has often said, Crimea is the “defining terrain” of the war.

In doing so, Biden will finally become unpredictable. Now, President Putin knows that the White House, especially his national security adviser Jake Sullivan, is gripped by concerns of escalation. Biden has to change that equation.

Blackmailing Crimea means exactly that. It will also force Putin’s military planners to reconsider whether Moscow’s likely impending counteroffensive against Kharkov is worth further exposing the peninsula.

Putin played that game with the West, using the October 7 attack on Israel as a distraction and launching an attack on Avdiivka a few days later. Now Biden can and must turn the tide against Putin in Crimea.

Biden won’t dissuade Putin by simply telling him to “fuck it.”His “not to do” is already didn’t stop Iran Do not attack Israel directly. North Korea’s brinkmanship with Japan and South Korea has not been stopped, nor has China’s harassment of Philippine ships in the South China Sea or its plots against Taiwan.

That would be more persuasive than Biden’s “no.” Most convincingly, Ukraine would immediately destroy the Kerch Bridge, which connects Crimea to mainland Russia. For Putin, then, he will have to worry about a storm of his own rallies.US introduction of ATACMS, additional 1,600 Stormshadow missiles It’s an attack from the UK, and F-16 fighter jets have already made that course of action a reality.

The addition of these precision deep-strike weapons and ammunition will also enable Ukraine to win interdiction wars. and strike back against Russian drone, cruise missile, and intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launch sites, as well as major command, control, and logistics centers such as the port city of Rostov-on-Don on the Sea of ​​Azov.

Biden and his national security team, along with NATO, hold the outcome of this war, win or lose. Congress gave Biden all the funding and more he asked for on a bipartisan basis. He no longer has any excuses. It is his responsibility to face the storm gathering in Kharkov and Chasiv Yar and turn it into the beginning of the end of Putin’s adventurism in Europe and other regions.

mark toth He writes about national security and foreign policy. Colonel (retired) Jonathan Sweet He served as a military intelligence officer for 30 years.