As Russia threatens another offensive, this is the moment of maximum
danger. Ukraine’s allies must move fast and decisively.

Europe must fight. The realisation has been slow in coming. Yet almost one
year after Russia invaded Ukraine, most western governments finally
understand Kyiv’s war for survival is their war, too. It’s a fight to the
death for Ukraine, but also for European democracy, rights and values.
It’s a fight against the historical evils of fascism and imperialism
embodied by Vladimir Putin, a dictator for our age.

Europe must fight. It really has no choice. As Russia doubles down,
threatening a huge new offensive, a turning point approaches when tragedy
turns to ruin – or triumph. This moment, when the war has become familiar
and wearying, is the moment of maximum danger. From Sweden, Spain, the
Netherlands, France, Poland and the Baltic republics, the flow of arms is
turning into an urgent torrent.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jan/22/ukraine-is-fighting-for-all-of-us-now-europe-must-fight-putin-too

The EU is toughening its stance, too. Council of ministers president
Charles Michel urged Europe to be “very ambitious” in helping Kyiv
withstand imminent attack. “The following weeks can be decisive because of
the military situation. There is a risk of a massive assault,” he warned.
It was an admission by a senior EU figure that economic sanctions,
diplomatic ostracism and nonexistent peace talks cannot by themselves end
this war.

Fears of an escalating, even nuclear conflict, most often expressed by
Germany’s government, are daily trumped by the horror of Putin’s
relentless butchery. Military escalation has become unavoidable, as shown
by the ineluctable shift from providing light weapons last spring to
advanced missile systems, state-of-the-art artillery, armoured fighting
vehicles – and now, main battle tanks.

Every time a kindergarten, school or hospital is bombed; every time
atrocious war crimes, rapes and hideous acts of torture are uncovered;
every time a family weeps over the grave of a loved one, killed in a
struggle waged on behalf of all, Europe’s obligation to resist such
brutalism is reinforced.

In their hearts, Europeans know full well that defeat would be disastrous.
Surveys show public opinion remains overwhelmingly hostile to Russia.
While many people would back a negotiated settlement, they realise it’s
unobtainable at present. Meanwhile, hesitant, unimaginative leaders such
as Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, are pulled along by a tidal wave of
disgust.

Europe, in order to prevail, must fight back with everything it’s got,
even at the risk of national armed forces ultimately becoming directly
engaged. Last week’s wrangling over sending hi-tech German Leopard 2 tanks
to Kyiv merely reprises previous, futile arguments about the level of
weapons supplies. Ukrainians fight for all of us, so why tie their hands?

East and central European politicians have a clearer-eyed estimation of
the physical Russian threat, rooted in history. They want Nato to send
combat aircraft, too. How different things might be today, they suggest,
had a less chary western alliance deployed such weapons last spring.

It’s a question Joe Biden, Nato’s de facto boss, should ask himself as he
dithers anew, this time over Kyiv’s plea for long-range missiles that
could hit bases in occupied Crimea and Russia itself. Emotionally, Biden
gets it. Visiting Warsaw last March, he blurted out: “For God’s sake, this
man [Putin] cannot remain in power.” Yet politically, his instinct is to
play safe – even when safety is an illusion.

It’s pointless blaming the US, which provides the lion’s share of arms and
aid – including $2.5bn last week alone. Europe must fight its own battles
and not hide, as Scholz tries to do, behind America’s skirts. Even
France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, has abandoned his peace hotline to
Moscow and is supplying heavy armour. Macron, too, realises Europe must
fight.

By offering a squadron of Challenger tanks last week, the UK gave Europe
an important nudge. “It will cost so much more in human lives and so much
more in money if we allow this to be a long, drawn-out attritional war,”
foreign secretary James Cleverly said. “We should look to bring it to a
conclusion quickly, the conclusion has to be Ukrainian victory. And that
dictates therefore that we need to intensify our support.”

Blundering Putin’s belief that he’s now in a fight to the finish feeds a
growing sense of emergency. Anders Fogh Rasmussen, a former Nato secretary
general, said Kyiv should have all the tanks it needs. And it was time to
“close the skies over Ukraine” to prevent more civilian deaths.

Rasmussen’s appeal recalled last summer’s arguments over whether Nato
should create safe havens or a no-fly zone over all or part of Ukraine –
suggestions dismissed as too dangerous. Thousands of Ukrainians have since
paid in blood for that shameful reluctance while vital infrastructure and
millions of homes have sustained incalculable damage.

If Europe is to win the fight it is in, it must revisit such military
options and wean itself off the too careful half measures and
incrementalism that have bedevilled its approach so far. Retired general
Wesley Clark, a former Nato supreme allied commander for Europe, warned a
crunch was fast approaching. “We’ve got to give Ukraine the weapons to
eject Russia. Russia is not relenting on what it’s doing. Putin is
mobilising more forces. He is planning for another offensive,” Clark said.
Promised additional weaponry and assistance was still insufficient, he
said. “We have got to get serious.”

Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Ukraine’s president, spelled it out for the hard of
hearing with passion and panache in Switzerland last week. The allies must
move faster and more decisively, he said, because “tragedies are outpacing
life [and] tyranny is outpacing democracy”.

Zelenskiy is right. Risk-averse Nato has been too slow and too cautious
from the start. To outpace tyranny, Europe must fight – and fight to win.
Our common future depends on it.

### - (quote from above...)

"Europe, in order to prevail, must fight back with everything it’s got,
even at the risk of national armed forces ultimately becoming directly
engaged."

jeez here we go then peeps... one doesn't have to be a genius to read
between 'these' lines of syntactic commands huh... and is now typical of
the drum-banging 'call to war' we're all suddenly being bombarded with in
the uk media to get more directly... involved!!!

i.e., the whole 'tone' has suddenly changed from: we're trying to 'avoid'
war at any cost to: -it's now time to - quickly & decisively - end all
this? - and that russia must lose at ANY cost??

them's fighting words boy!

damn...