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To see a list of previous articles, enter “Ukraine” in the Search Box on the upper right, and you will see a list in chronological order.

Dispatches

1) Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, “A failed counteroffensive would be catastrophic for the West; While Ukraine fights for its freedom, Western armaments lie dormant in warehouses and hangers, The Telegraph, July 28, 2023 (3:11 pm);

2) Joe Barnes, “Ukrainian counter-offensive breaks through Russian defences in major push; Massive Himars strike and push through village signal new phase in fightback against Putin’s forces,” The Telegraph, July 27, 2023 (9:03 pm);

3) Joe Barnes, “Putin confirms ‘significantly intensified’ fighting as Ukraine makes major push in counter-offensive; Ukrainian forces have likely ‘managed to penetrate and drive through tactically challenging defensive positions’, says US-based think tank,” The Telegraph, July 27, 2023 (5:46 pm);

4) Lewis Page, “Putin is about to declare war on the whole world
A Black Sea blockade against Ukraine would affect everyone on Earth,” The Telegraph, July 27, 2023 (1:08 pm);

Analysis

If Ukraine and the West lose this war of Russian aggression and Ukrainian self-defense, one name will go down in history as the person most responsible for the loss: that of President Joe Biden.

By denying Ukraine the weapons it needed before or when it needed them, and by vetoing the provision of American-made and other weapons to Ukraine in a timely manner, Biden has deprived Ukraine of the victories it night have achieved, and undercut the momentum Ukrainian forces won in the autumn of 2022 with rapid advances in the Kharkiv and Kherson regions.

By denying Ukraine the right use American and NATO-supplied weaponto conduct counter-attacks against targets in Russia in full exercise of its right of self-defense under international law and Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, Biden has enabled Putin’s forces to launch missiles and drones at Ukrainian cities, apartment blocks, and other civilian targets including electrical and water infrastructure and the Nova Khakiva dam, Biden has denied the military assistance Ukraine has needed ton defend itself and win the war.

Winning the war means for Ukraine expelling invading Russia troops from all Ukrainian territory within its internationally-recognized borders of 1991, securing the payment of war reparations, and accountability of Russian soldiers and leaders for all of the war crimes, including crimes against humanity and acts of genocide, which they have orchestrated or personally committed.

Victory for Ukraine, the U.N. Charter, and the civilized countries of the world means a just and lasting peace under the terms of the U.N. General Assembly Resolution of February 23, 2023, which was approved by a vote of 141-7, with 35 abstentions.

The moral responsibility of Joe Biden for the failure to deter Russia’s aggression (e.g., taking the use of force off the table in the event of a Russian invasion, the failure to impose any sanctions against Russia for the threat of the use of force proscribed by Article 2 (4) of the U.N. Charter, and the delayed and halting threats of sanctions (e.g., blocking the Nordstream II gas pipeline or expulsion from the SWIFT international payments system), is immense.

Historians will rank Biden’s failures of leadership in deterring and then combatting Russia’s aggression against Ukraine as being as calamitous as his decision to withdraw all U.S. forces and contractors from Afghanistan.

His presidency has been largely successful on the domestic front.

Historians will judge that it has been a disaster on the foreign policy front. We should recall that British prime minister Neville Chamberlain’s policy of appeasement of Adolf Hitler was popular in England at the time, though it proved to be utterly disastrous in the event.

Now is not the time to detail the arguments historians are likely to make in judging all of Joe Biden’s foreign policy decisions and initiatives.

Rather, it is a time to urge–and demand–that Joe Biden start taking actions to salvage what he can of his reputation while acting to successfully defend the U.N. Charter, international law, and the United Nations itself.

The Trenchant Observer

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