More U.S. weapons are heading to Ukraine. The Russian invaders continue to pummel civilians as the war concentrates in the eastern Donbas region. U.S. and NATO leaders are pledging military assistance to Ukraine for “as long as it takes.” For his part, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy refuses to cede an inch of territory, although he concedes it may be impossible to fully expel Russia’s army.
So, to sum things up, nearly five months after Russia’s unprovoked invasion of its neighbor, there is no end in sight for this war. And that, in turn, raises a question that is the subject of this episode of History As It Happens.
Where are the diplomats?
At the G20 meeting of foreign ministers in Indonesia, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken did not meet privately with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, who faced “frenzied criticism” from attendees. There appears to be no sustained diplomatic effort to call a ceasefire, even as both sides deal with reported troop exhaustion.
“Both sides believe now is not the time for negotiations,” said former Ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor, who served in Kyiv from 2006 to 2010 and then again in 2019. “On the Ukrainian side, they see that the West is committed… Ukrainians are counting on that.”
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Ukrainian officials privately say they are “prepared to fight for 20 years, if necessary,” said Anatol Lieven, an analyst at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, “to reconquer everything the Russians have taken since 2014. The Russians I’ve talked to… say that Russia will fight for 20 or 100 years to retain Crimea.”
Listen to former Ambassador William Taylor and Anatol Lieven discuss and debate what’s next for the war in Ukraine by downloading this episode of History As It Happens.
