I like the sentiment, and I believe that the Ukrainians will fight on regardless, but I am extremely pessimistic about their prospects past the end of this year. US support has been critical from the very earliest stages of this war and indeed even before the invasion of Feb '22. The Rivet Joint flights, HIMARS, Patriot batteries, Starlink access, cyber defense and intel support... I am not a defense expert but to my understanding there is no way that the EU/NATO-minus-US can fill the gap for these programs. Without them the Ukrainian strategic and tactical options are much more limited and they are forced to confront vastly reduced expectations from what only a short time ago was an already not great situation but one that held a chance of rewarding their tenacity.
And all that is just assuming that the US merely withdraws support; I would not be at all surprised if this administration begins pointing US cyber ops and the intel pipeline in the opposite direction and gives Russia a much clearer picture into their targets in Ukraine. In any other era this would be an unthinkable betrayal but now it seems far more likely than not.
And all that is just assuming that the US merely withdraws support; I would not be at all surprised if this administration begins pointing US cyber ops and the intel pipeline in the opposite direction and gives Russia a much clearer picture into their targets in Ukraine. In any other era this would be an unthinkable betrayal but now it seems far more likely than not.