2024-09-30
7 分钟If Ukraine and its Western backers are to win,
They must first have the courage to admit that they are losing.
In the past two years, Russia and Ukraine have fought a costly war of attrition.
That is unsustainable.
When Volodymyr Zelensky travelled to America to see President Joe Biden this week,
he brought a plan for victory, expected to contain a fresh call for arms and money.
In fact, Ukraine needs something far more ambitious.
An urgent change of course.
A measure of Ukraine's declining fortunes is Russia's advance in the east,
particularly around the city of Pokrovsk.
So far it is slow and costly.
Recent estimates of Russian losses run at about 1,200 killed and wounded a day,
on top of the total of 500,000.
But Ukraine, with a fifth as many people as Russia, is hurting too.
Its lines could crumble before Russia's war effort is exhausted.
Ukraine is also struggling off the battlefield.
Russia has destroyed so much of the power grid that Ukrainians will face the freezing winter with daily blackouts of up to 16 hours.
People are tired of war.
The army is struggling to mobilize and train enough troops to hold the line,
let alone retake territory.