Unlocking of EU’s $105 Billion Loan Could Prove Turning Point in Ukraine’s Courageous Stand Against Russian Aggression

Final approval of the European Union’s $105 billion loan package to Kyiv is sending what Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, calls “the right signal” in a war that has fallen out of the spotlight amid the struggle with Iran.It is unfortunate if people are paying less attention to the Kremlin’s war of aggression, though, because something amazing is happening in the war between the Russian Goliath and the Ukrainian David.The Ukrainians have now withstood Russia’s vicious killing of civilians and destruction of civilian infrastructure for longer than all of World War I.With the difference in forces and in the size of the two countries, we are witnessing a heroic stand. It is reminiscent of the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae, the volunteers who held the Alamo, the Finns who shocked the Russian Army in the 1939 Winter War, or the Israelis who stood off and decisively defeated all their neighbors at the time of Israel’s founding. To really understand this amazing development, you must go back to the weeks just before the Russian invasion. America’s chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, General Mark Milley, the highest ranking American military leader, privately told members of Congress in a closed session that Russia would take Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, within 72 hours. Russia’s generals apparently gave Vladimir Putin a similar timeline and sense of inevitability.After all, the Russian seizure of Crimea in 2014 had been fast, smooth, and executed with clockwork precision. Russian military leaders and their boss were convinced they could capture Ukraine with the same speed and inevitability they had demonstrated in Crimea eight years earlier.You can tell how overconfident Mr. Putin and his generals were from the lack of preparation, training, and logistics support. The opening offensive failed more by Russian incompetence and lack of adaptability and preparation than by the Ukrainians. Trucks and tanks kept running out fuel and just sat blocking the roads. Troops had the wrong uniforms for the weather and inadequate supplies of food, medicine, and ammunition. So, the initial attack was a mess. It just failed. However, by the time it failed, the Ukrainians were beginning to gear up and prepare for the fight of their lives.Columnist and author Mark Steyn has been on a tour of Ukraine. He is a remarkably insightful and wise observer. I read his columns faithfully, and his 2006 book “America Alone” is still terrifyingly accurate in its description of the collapse of Europe. Mr. Steyn’s tour started in the west. He’s going through Kyiv to the eastern battlefields. He made a point so important I felt I had to share it. Mr. Steyn wrote that the Ukrainians he talks with expect a long war and are adjusting to work, live, and enjoy life in the middle of a nationwide war zone. Russian drones attack every night, but he — and many Ukrainians — have gotten used to ignoring them. I also read daily reports (on Iran and Ukraine) from the Institute for the Study of War. It provides a remarkable analysis that I recommend highly. The most striking thing to me is that the local Russian offensives it describes are about the size of a platoon (between 50 and 70 men). This is too small an effort to achieve anything, and it shows in the relative stability of the front line in eastern Ukraine.At the same time, the Ukrainians have been developing a revolution in the effectiveness of drones. Its naval drone capability has driven the Russian fleet out of the Black Sea. Ukraine’s growing long range drone capability is enabling it to hit vital Russian economic targets as far away as St. Petersburg in the Baltic. The tactical dominance of these drones has led some analysts to estimate up to 80 percent of Russian casualties are now being caused by drones. Ukraine has completely undermined the Russian ability to launch large armored assaults.The sheer determination of Ukrainians to save their country has two deep historic roots. First, when Kyiv was the center of Russian civilization, Moscow was a small trading village hidden deep in Russia. In fact, at its peak, Kyiv negotiated with Constantinople as an equal. Marriages were arranged, and treaties were signed. Both were destroyed by the Mongols in the 13th century, but after Moscow fell in 1238, Kyiv put up a brutal resistance two years later. About 95 percent of the population was killed. Still, the city returned. Toughness is part of Ukraine’s identity.Second, there is a latent memory of Stalin’s deliberate Ukrainian famine, which killed millions as a matter of state policy (Timothy Snyder’s “Bloodlands” has a horrifying description of the extraordinary pain and tragedy inflicted by Stalin). So, no one in Ukraine trusts or welcomes rule from Mr. Putin’s Kremlin.We are watching a stunning moment of collective bravery, which deserves our admiration, prayers, and support. America and its European allies should fully support the Ukrainians in defeating Mr. Putin. The EU loan package is a significant step forward in that direction. Ukraine has earned the West’s help in blood, courage, and persistence.

Unlocking of EU’s $105 Billion Loan Could Prove Turning Point in Ukraine’s Courageous Stand Against Russian Aggression

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