The West has created a moral dilemma for itself. Its characteristic refusal to prevent (rather than belatedly react to) bad things, and its refusal to provide Ukraine what it needs most to fend off Russia, requires it to ask itself: is it defensible to encourage Ukrainians to continue to resist an onslaught, the outcome of which is certain?
Sanctions, regardless how draconian they become, will not dissuade Russia from its objective. Efforts to extract hope from sub-optimal performance by the Russian military will fail for the obvious reason that Russia will bring to bear whatever force for however long it takes. Ukrainian pleas for the only kind of intervention that matters will go (politely) ignored.
The West—in its pristine, technocratic and, ultimately, perverse way—will provide weapons for Ukrainians to use in their battle for national survival. But to what end? At what stage will enough of Ukraine’s population—a third of which is a combination of under-14s and over-65s—become exhausted and want the shooting to end?
It’s true that the decision to continue to fight or surrender is for Ukrainians alone. And no Ukrainian leader can be faulted for choosing the latter in the face of overwhelming odds. It would take special mettle to impose on the population—the portion that hasn’t fled—the obligation to endure war indefinitely against a far larger opponent.
But should the West induce in Ukraine the hope that Russian efforts can be stymied if the inevitable result will be death and destruction across the entire country? Assume the infrastructure of cities survives. Assume further that Ukraine resorts to ongoing resistance in the form of partisan warfare sustained by Western arms.
How many Ukrainian villages will Russia burn to the ground in reprisals? Will their formula for the execution of Ukrainian civilians be what the Germans used 80 years ago, 100 for every Russian killed and 50 for every Russian wounded? For how long is this sustainable for some 40 million Ukrainian civilians?
Russia will scorch the earth and flatten every city of Ukraine if that’s what it takes to subjugate the place. On what moral grounds, then, can the West justify policies certain to put those millions at the mercy of typical Russian cruelties and irrational destruction? Do Western leaders even ask themselves the question as they encourage Ukrainians in their heroic self-immolation?
