Momentum in Ukraine Is Shifting in Russia's Favor
Yet, the heady early days of the war — when the Ukrainian underdog held off a deluded and inept aggressor and Putin’s indiscriminate bombardment united the West in outrage — have begun to fade. In their place is a war that is evolving into what analysts increasingly say will be a long slog, placing growing pressure on the governments and economies of Western countries and others throughout the world.
Nowhere is that slog more evident than in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region. Despite urgent pleas to the West for more heavy weapons, Ukrainian forces appear to lack what it takes to confront Russia’s use of artillery for scorched-earth shelling of towns and villages. While Ukraine is holding Russia back in the major regional city of Sievierodonetsk, it is suffering heavy losses — at least 100 fatalities a day, although their full extent is not yet known — and desperately needs more weapons and ammunition.
...If the Russian economy has shown surprising resilience, it has been hit hard by Western sanctions; a brain drain will undermine growth for many years. Putin’s pariah status in the West appears unlikely to change.
Elsewhere, however, in Africa and Asia, support for the West — and for Ukraine — is more nuanced. Many countries see little difference between Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and the U.S.’ invasion of Iraq in 2003; they seem unlikely to be persuaded otherwise.
More generally, there is resentment in much of the developing world of what is seen as U.S. domination, viewed as a hangover from the 20th century. In this context, the strong partnership between China and Russia is viewed not with the hostility and anxiety that it provokes in the West, but rather as a salutary challenge to a Western-dominated global system.
...With inflation hitting levels not seen for four decades in the U.S. and Britain, financial markets tumbling, interest rates rising and food shortages looming, such a drift in focus away from a long war toward more pressing domestic concerns may be inevitable. The war is not to blame for all of these developments, but it does exacerbate most of them — and there is no end in sight.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/momentum-ukr ... 35416.html
I'm reminded of a recent conversation I had with an Indian friend. He said Indians don't hold the same hatred towards the Nazis that Westerners do because Indians liked that someone stood up to their oppressor, Britain. He then talked about the many atrocities that the British committed against Indians during the colonial period, and the injustice that no one outside of India cares about or knows about them.
I think the West bears some responsibility for the Ukraine War by meddling in its politics in the 2000s and 2010s. We should have conceded it as a Russian satellite state and left it alone. If Putin felt securely in control of Ukraine, he probably wouldn't have invaded.
