MADRID — President Biden vowed on Thursday that the United States and NATO would support Ukraine for as long as it takes to fend off the Russian invasion, despite waves of economic pain streaming through global markets and voter homes, and said it was killing the Kremlin was that in its aggression, and not the West to oppose it.
At a press conference at the end of a NATO summit in Madrid, Mr. Biden that Americans and the rest of the world should pay more for gasoline and energy as a price to stem Russian aggression. How long? “While it lasts, Russia cannot beat Ukraine and go beyond Ukraine,” he said.
But his comments underscored the kaleidoscope of difficulties he and other NATO leaders face in holding on to their people to support Ukraine with money, weapons and sanctions against Russia, despite the damage it is doing to Western economies and an uncertain outcome. on the battlefield.
“You can already see in the media that the interest is declining, and that affects the public, and the public affects the politicians,” said Ann Linde, Sweden’s foreign minister. “So it is our responsibility to keep Ukraine and what Russia is doing high on our agenda. We’ve seen this so many times – you have a catastrophe, you have a war, and it just keeps going, but it slips.”
NATO’s 30 member states concluded a major, even transformative summit in Madrid this week, taking the first step to admit Sweden and Finland, emphasize their unity in support of Ukraine and approve plans to deploy alliance forces. in countries on the eastern flank, closest to Russia and its ally, Belarus. The decisions, all prompted by the Russian invasion, are expected to strengthen the alliance, especially in its ability to defend the Baltic states while significantly expanding the border with Russia.
Russia’s President Vladimir V. Putin wanted to fragment NATO and prevent its expansion, but Mr. Biden said that before the war started, Mr. Putin warned that if he invaded Ukraine, “NATO would not only get stronger, but more united, and we would see the democracies of the world rise up and resist his aggression and defend the rules-based order.” That, he said, was “exactly what we see today.”
But he and the leaders face economic crises, domestic divisions and increasingly tired voters. Fuel prices are rising as a result of the war, high inflation and Western attempts to punish Moscow with its main exports, oil and gas. The United States, distracted and polarized by key court decisions, hearings over the Capitol riot and the upcoming election, is on the brink of recession. German leaders warn of a potentially desperate energy crisis and food prices soar as Russia blocks critical exports from Ukraine.
Italy’s Prime Minister Mario Draghi had to leave the summit to help bolster his political coalition, which is partly deeply unhappy about his strong support for Ukraine and the costs involved.
Anna Wieslander, Sweden’s Northern Europe director for the Atlantic Council, said that while support for Ukraine was broadly across the alliance, it was uneven: strongest in countries with long experience and deep fear of Russian domination, such as Poland. and the Baltic States, and more difficult to maintain in countries such as Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and Greece.
Understanding the war between Russia and Ukraine better
“There it is more difficult to sell, with inflation, high energy prices and war fatigue, and will they really believe this geopolitical argument that we should do this now or it will get worse? We’re not there yet, but it’s going to get harder,” she said.
And pledges by some members to bolster their armies are far from changing the alliance’s material terms. Spain spends barely 1 percent of its GDP on defense, half of the NATO target; Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez promised to reach 2 percent only by 2029, and he must first convince unwilling political parties to support the increase.
Ukraine’s leaders continue to call for more weapons, delivered faster, to counter Russia’s slow advance. President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a speech to NATO leaders this week that Ukraine needed about $5 billion a month to keep its government functioning.
The announcement of a massively expanded NATO response force, of about 300,000 troops or more, instead of the current 40,000, also illustrated the challenge Western leaders face in realizing their rhetoric. The Allies must negotiate which troops will be part of the force, spend money to equip them, train them, and decide on the logistics of deployment – a process that is likely to take at least a year.
“A lot needs to be done by different countries, and a lot will have to be worked through” to develop an integrated force that could fight a major land war in Europe, said Malcolm Chalmers, the deputy director of the Royal United Services Institute. , a military research group in Great Britain. But NATO can no longer focus on “forwarders” to go fighting in places like Afghanistan, he said, so “this summit has undergone a transformation.”
As NATO and its allies scrambled to navigate politics, find cash and move troops, China and India filled the gap in Russia’s finances by buying the crude oil that fuels the Kremlin’s war machine. . And Mr Putin has reappeared abroad for the first time in months, with a newfound confidence and patience, to engage in diplomatic tidbits in Central Asia.
“The work is smooth, rhythmic,” he told journalists in Turkmenistan on Wednesday, describing the fighting by Russian troops. He insisted he was in no rush to end the war, saying, “There’s no need to talk about timing.”
Despite that claim, neither Russia nor Ukraine appear to have broken through the other side’s lines in any significant way in recent days, despite heavy bombing and fighting in the eastern Donbas region and parts of southern Ukraine. Both sides are severely exhausted, with heavy casualties and loss of equipment.
After repeated Ukrainian attacks – also with powerful newly arrived Western weapons – the last Russian troops withdrew overnight in speedboats from Snake Island, a small patch of land in the Black Sea that Russia had taken and used as a base to explore the Ukrainian coast. to threaten.
But it was unclear whether Ukraine would be able to reoccupy the island, which could affect control of the shipping routes near Odessa. Russia has blocked Odessa and other ports, preventing the export of millions of tons of grain and contributing to a global food crisis.
Instead, neither side will be able to hold onto the island for the foreseeable future, as Russian warships are kept at bay by Ukrainian missiles but still patrol the Black Sea, alongside submarines, in greater numbers than Ukraine can sink.
U.S. intelligence agencies agree that the war is likely far from over, Avril D. Haines, the director of national intelligence, said Wednesday in her first public update on the war in more than a month.
Ukrainian troops have taken many of their combat positions in Donbas, including Luhansk and Donetsk provinces. Although Russia has conquered much of Luhansk province, US officials believe it will be difficult for the Russian military to take the part of Donetsk they do not yet control.
“The conflict remains a dragging battle in which the Russians make gains step by step, but no breakthrough,” Ms Haines said. “In short, the picture remains quite grim.”
Steven Erlanger† Michael D. Shear and Jim Tankersley reported from Madrid, and Alan Yuhas From New York. Reporting contributed by: Anton Trojanovskic from Berlin, Ivan Nechepurenko from Tbilisi, Georgia, Marc Santora from Warsaw, and Julian E. Barnes from Washington.
