The United States Faces a Dilemma Over Arming Ukraine by Hélène Richard (Le Monde Diplomacy)

Men In recent weeks, a new, more peaceful tone has come from the White House. There were press leaks about contacts with national security adviser Jake Sullivan and figures on Vladimir Putin’s Security Council, including foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov. The stance has been interpreted as starting the preparatory stage for negotiations with Russia. Suggestions that talks may be imminent were tempered by confidence that Kyiv was still in the lead. On the way to , he again promised to “do nothing about Ukraine.” [will be decided] Except for Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to Washington on Dec. 21 sent a message of “coordination and cooperation,” a White House official said the day before. Arms and munitions continue to flow into Ukraine, but the idea of ​​negotiations is no longer taboo in the United States.

Once upon a time, it was the Pentagon, not the White House, that drove diplomacy in Washington. A lull in combat over the winter could open a “window of opportunity for negotiations,” according to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley. “A military victory is probably not a true military means,” Millie told the Economic Club of New York in November. We have to mutually recognize what we cannot achieve, so we have to look to other means.”

This diplomatic opening comes at a time when Washington has already amassed some significant war profits. Russia has clearly exposed its military shortcomings. After withdrawing from the Kyiv region in March last year and Kharkov in September, it suffered a third setback at Kherson. Its long-term modernization has been undermined by technology embargoes. NATO (…)

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