Retired US General Jack Keane has published an op-ed in the New York Post on 6 August, arguing that the war in Ukraine is “fraught but winnable” if the West steps up its support against Russia.
Keane, a retired four-star general, is a former Army vice chief of staff and current chairman at the Institute for the Study of War, emphasizes that the war’s outcome is not yet determined, stating,
“The war in Ukraine is still not stalemated. Ukraine can regain strategically vital ground. But the Russians can also still win if the West’s will to continue supporting Ukraine falters.”
The retired general warns of the consequences of a Russian victory, arguing that it “would give [Russian President] Vladimir Putin vast new resources, bring Russian forces to the NATO border, and let the Russian military rebuild quickly,” with this scenario being “disastrous for the US” and potentially “cost American lives if deterrence fails.”
Keane acknowledges recent Russian gains, but notes they have come at a high cost of staggering losses of “tens of thousands killed and wounded for advances of a few miles.” However, he also points out that Ukrainian losses are also high, “their forces are stretched thin.”
Keane advocates for a change in Ukrainian strategy, suggesting “a series of smaller counteroffensive operations in sequence” rather than attempting a single, decisive blow.
“Ukrainian forces, properly supplied with Western systems integrated with their own domestically produced drones and other weapons, can stop Russian advances and start pushing the Russians back sometime in 2025,” Keane wrote.
The retired general criticizes current US policy restrictions, stating,
“The US must also lift the absurd restrictions on Ukraine’s ability to use American-provided systems to strike legitimate military targets inside Russia.”
Keane says that these restrictions give “sanctuary to all the major airbases in the Russian Federation from which the Russian Air Force conducts daily strikes on Ukrainian front-line troops and cities.”
“What we do in Ukraine today and in the coming years will profoundly shape the course of history,” the retired general says, calling for continued US leadership in rallying allied support, warning that a failure to do so could lead to “a world at war” dominated by “brutal authoritarian regimes.”
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