PRINCETON – After nine years of war – and one year of intensified fighting following Russia’s full-scale invasion – Ukraine’s future remains murky. In the West, the current debate is focused largely on the matter of weapons shipments to Ukraine. Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States have agreed to supply modern tanks that they had previously withheld, but now Ukraine is also asking for longer-range missiles and fighter jets.
There is no consensus. Some fear that supplying jets and other weapons with an offensive capacity could risk escalation or provoke a nuclear response from the Kremlin; others, beholden to former US President Donald Trump’s brand of nativist isolationism, are questioning why Western taxpayers should pay for Ukraine’s defense. As these debates grow more divisive, those who believe the war must be fought will also have to start thinking about how it could and should end.
