Hannes Rumm: Ukraine is doing poorly, so are we

Renowned political scientist, head of the European Council on Foreign Relations Mark Leonard recently visited the US capital, Washington.

Leonard met there with members of President Joe Biden’s administration, representatives of the Republican Party from both the Senate and the House of Representatives, and experts from various think tanks.

They all assured me that congressional approval of $95 billion in additional funding for Ukraine and Israel is only a matter of time and will probably happen in April or May, Leonard wrote.

But then he added with undisguised sarcasm: “These promises would be much more believable if similar promises had not already been made in November, December, January and February.”

Since the USA is the biggest supporter of Ukraine and their aid shipments ended last year, this has put the Ukrainian defense forces in a very difficult situation. It is worth briefly comparing what is happening on the Russian-Ukrainian front line in April 2023 and this year.

Last spring, Ukraine began to prepare a major summer offensive in its communications. With hindsight, we know that the so-called Surovikin defense lines turned out to be unexpectedly strong, and Ukraine lacked the necessary armaments to overcome them.

This spring, all signs indicate that Ukraine is suffering from an increasing shortage of ammunition, and instead the Russian army is successfully using it to prepare for a major offensive. The saddest example of this is Russia’s bomb and drone attacks, which are becoming more and more massive, which force the front line to be quietly straightened and destroy Ukraine’s energy infrastructure more and more mercilessly.