US aid to Ukraine ‘won’t end conflict, but prolong it’
US President Joe Biden announced a $425 million security assistance package for Ukraine on Wednesday as he prepared to travel to Germany to strengthen the confidence of US allies in Europe. Chinese analysts said the aid won't bring any significant change to end the conflict but will only prolong the war.
The main reason Biden is adding more aid to Ukraine is to comfort US allies that the US policy toward Ukraine will be sustainable no matter who sits in the White House, experts noted.
According to the White House release on Wednesday, Biden spoke by telephone to President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine about the security package, which includes additional air defense capability, air-to-ground munitions, armored vehicles, and critical munitions to "meet Ukraine's urgent needs."
The package comes as Biden is set to travel to Germany on Thursday for a brief trip that is likely to be his last visit to Europe as commander in chief. The US president will use the opportunity to "remind the world of the importance of alliances" just three weeks before the US presidential election. Biden will meet with Chancellor Olaf Scholz and President Frank-Walter Steinmeier of Germany before returning to the US on Friday, the New York Times reported.
Lü Xiang, a research fellow on US studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Thursday that "many Americans believe that the US has failed to avoid this war in Europe and spend taxpayers' money to support an endless war with almost no hope of victory."
At the same time, Biden also sees the aid toward Ukraine as a key "legacy" of his administration, so he has strong intention to safeguard and reinforce this policy, and more importantly, to convince US allies to keep following the US to support Ukraine, Li Haidong, a professor at China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times.
Therefore, just like US allies, Biden is also concerned about a possible U-turn upon his "legacy," so he is trying his best to add support to Ukraine and emphasize the importance of victory at the very last moment of his term, Lü said.
Military experts said the current situation of the Russia-Ukraine conflict won't be affected significantly by any conventional weapons, so the US aid can only prolong the conflict, but it's not enough to bring a victory for Ukraine, so it seems that the US doesn't want the war to end any time soon.
Lü said that much of US aid to Ukraine is, in nature, the business that transformed the money of taxpayers into the wallet of the military industrial complex in the name of supporting Ukraine, so no one should expect that a few more millions can bring any big change to the combat situation.
'Victory plan'
Zelensky told lawmakers Wednesday that Ukraine's Western partners are "increasing pressure to negotiate with Russia," but he hinted such talks would be unfavorable to Kiev as he unveiled what he called his "victory plan" for the war, the AP reported.
Zelensky presented his "victory plan" to the Ukrainian parliament Wednesday, where he outlined Ukraine's strategy in the ongoing conflict with Russia.
The five-point plan covers geopolitical, military, economic, and security goals, calls for Ukraine's NATO membership in the near future, and includes a proposal to lift current restrictions hindering Ukraine from using long-range Western weapons on targets inside Russia, the Xinhua News Agency reported on Wednesday.
"If we start moving according to this victory plan now, it may be possible to end the war no later than next year," Zelensky told the Verkhovna Rada, the parliament. He is set to present the five-point plan to the European Council on Thursday, according to the AP.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday that the new proposal is likely just the same American plan to fight until the last Ukrainian, which Zelensky has now disguised as a "peace plan," according to the Xinhua report.
Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stressed that the Ukrainian president is using his plan to push NATO toward a direct conflict with Russia, TASS reported.
The NATO chief, Mark Rutte, gave a muted response to Zelensky's plans, saying he and allies "take note" of it. "The plan has many aspects and many political and military issues we really need to hammer out with the Ukrainians to understand what is behind it, to see what we can do, what we cannot do," Rutte said, the Guardian reported.
This shows that the US and its NATO allies are using Ukraine to undermine Russia and hopefully Ukrainians can see through that, said Li.