Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday argued that his forces can overcome Russia but requires stronger air defense systems as he seeks help from the Baltic States while the U.S. continues to stall on making stronger commitments to Kyiv.
“Zelenskyy has put up a good fight against Putin,” Rebekah Koffler, a strategic military intelligence analyst and the author of “Putin’s Playbook,” told Fox News Digital.
“Ukraine has been able to hold the line, for almost two years, against the Russian armed forces whom the Pentagon considers a ‘near-peer competitor’ to the U.S. military,” she argued. “It is now high time to think long term and save what’s left of his country, which was destroyed because of the lack of strategic planning in Washington, Kyiv and Brussels.”
“There is no more money for Ukraine, as the Pentagon admitted last Thursday, nor [is] there much military hardware to spare for Ukraine, as this war has been depleting U.S. weapons arsenals,” Koffler added.
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Zelenskyy spoke in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius following talks with the country’s president, Gitanas Nauseda. He lamented the “lack of modern air defense systems” in Ukraine, stressing they are “what we need the most.”
Countries that normally could provide such weapons face low stockpiles, Zelenskyy admitted: “Warehouses are empty, and there are many challenges to world defense.”
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks in Vilnius to supporters, including Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda, center, on Jan. 10, 2024. (Petras Malukas/AFP via Getty Images)
The Biden administration in December announced it would provide $250 million worth of aid to Ukraine, marking the final distribution of stockpiled support that the U.S. can make without lawmakers’ approval. Congress has, meanwhile, dragged its feet on approving another multibillion-dollar national security supplemental package – initially requested in October.
Lithuania will send ammunition, generators and detonation systems to Ukraine this month, with plans to provide armored personnel carriers to the sum of 200 million euros to support Kyiv, The Associated Press reported.
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“We know how tiring this long-running war is, and we are interested in Ukraine’s complete victory in it as soon as possible,” Nauseda told reporters.
The Baltic and Balkan States remain some of the staunchest supporters of Ukraine despite their relatively small size compared with players such as the U.S. and the U.K., which Zelenskyy has leaned on as Russia’s invasion continued.
Ukrainian soldiers fire a cannon near Bakhmut, an eastern city where fierce battles against Russian forces have been taking place, in the Donetsk region, Ukraine, May 15, 2023. (AP Photo/Libkos)
In November 2023, Zelenskyy warned that Russia wants to cause an “explosion” in the Balkans as part of its “long plan” that includes ambitions for the region. In his most recent Telegram messages, Zelenskyy thanked the Baltic States for their “uncompromising” support over the past decade.
Estonian President Alar Karis in a statement claimed that “Democratic countries have done a lot to help Ukraine, but we need to do more together so that Ukraine wins and the aggressor loses.”
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“Then there is the hope that this will remain the last military aggression in Europe, where someone wants to dictate to their neighbor with missiles, drones and cannons what political choices can be made,” Karis said.
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis has argued that his country faces “no greater threat, geopolitical and military threat, than Russia.”
President Biden meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office of the White House, Sept. 21, 2023. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
“Obviously, the thing is that the countries who share their border with Russia have little illusion as to what Russia really is even before the war,” Landsbergis told Fox News Digital in 2022, pointing to the 2008 invasion of Georgia and the 2014 offensive in Crimea. “We’ve always been asking for more attention to the eastern flank, too, so that it would be better defended.”
Koffler did not lay the blame squarely on Ukraine’s allies, but also blamed Zelenskyy for lacking “strategic vision” and an “absence of common sense” while also demonstrating plenty of “recalcitrance” throughout the campaign.
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“The demolition of Ukraine and annihilation of its people is a tragedy of epic proportions,” Koffler said. “It will go down in history as the biggest failure of deterrence and strategic planning by the West.”
“Yes, Putin is the main culprit, but the U.S. defense establishment and NATO knew what was coming [for] years prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and they chose to do nothing until it was too late,” Koffler added.
Fox News Digital’s Jamie Joseph and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
