Peace through strength is essential for Ukraine’s survival, - Blinken and Austin
Cutting aid to Ukraine and forcing a premature ceasefire will simply allow Putin to rest and attack again.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Pentagon Chief Lloyd Austin wrote about this in a column for The New York Times, Censor.NET reports.
"Pursuing a policy of peace through strength is vital to Ukraine's survival and America's security. The United States and its allies and partners must continue to support Ukraine and strengthen its position for negotiations that will one day lead to an end to Putin's war," they said.
Blinken and Austin emphasized that Ukraine's current success is a huge strategic achievement, but its troops still face serious challenges on the battlefield.
"Russian troops have recently retaken some of the territory that Ukraine liberated earlier in the war, and Putin's bombing of Ukrainian power plants and other critical infrastructure is causing terrible casualties," the article says.
According to them, the Ukrainian people did not submit, but paid a high price for their freedom.
"Since Putin started the war, more than 700,000 soldiers have been killed and wounded in Russia. He now increasingly faces an agonizing dilemma: either suffer heavy losses for minimal gains, possibly by mobilizing and causing internal instability, or seriously negotiate with Ukraine to end his war," the officials added.
Blinken and Austin noted that the U.S. financial and military support for Ukraine has given Kyiv and the next U.S. presidential administration leverage.
"This leverage should be used to end Putin's war and establish a lasting peace that ensures that Ukrainians can deter further Russian aggression, defend their territory, and prosper as a sovereign democracy. This is what peace through strength would look like. But since Putin maintains his imperial ambitions, giving up our leverage now through aid cuts and a forced premature ceasefire will simply allow Putin to rest, recalibrate, and ultimately attack again. It would be peace through surrender, which would be no peace at all," they concluded.
