Boris Johnson and Lindsey Graham
WSJ, Feb. 22, 2023
“After a year of slaughter, the West needs to do more to show the people of Russia what they are losing under Mr. Putin’s misrule.’
It has been a year since Vladimir Putin launched his vicious and unnecessary war in Ukraine. So far he has failed. He has failed to take Kyiv. He has failed to occupy the Kharkiv region. He has failed to remain in Kherson.
Mr. Putin’s war has cost the lives of at least 60,000 Russian troops. In the areas he has occupied, he has created a new Flanders fields of trenches and blasted trees, where months of effort and bloodshed produce gains that can be measured in yards. He has been forced to such desperate expedients as sending prisoners to the front and is running low on the technically advanced weaponry he needs.
The seemingly unstoppable force of the Russian military is breaking on the immovable object of Ukrainian resistance. We—elected representatives of the U.S. and the U.K.—remain lost in admiration for Ukrainian heroism and leadership.
Yet it remains possible for Mr. Putin to achieve something he can call victory. By hanging onto some pieces of land he has conquered, he shows the world that borders can be changed by force. All Mr. Putin needs to do to claim victory is continue the cynical policy he has followed since his first invasion of 2014—to use his foothold in Ukraine to destabilize the whole country. … SOURCE