Zelensky’s victory plan for defeating Russia could get us all killed

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky visited the United States last week to pitch his victory plan for winning Ukraine’s war with Russia. Zelensky’s schedule was packed. He gave a speech to the United Nations General Assembly, spoke with former President Donald Trump, and met privately with President Joe Biden. 

Yet he still had time to campaign for the Democrats in Pennsylvania. Was the little soldier interfering with our presidential election to benefit Kamala Harris?

Zelinski’s victory plan has two components. First, he wants Ukraine admitted to NATO. Second, he insists that the Western allies allow him to attack the Russian motherland with advanced weapons systems, including long-range missiles acquired from the West.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said plainly that NATO membership in Ukraine could lead to nuclear war. Putin has also said that Russia might respond with nuclear weapons if Ukraine fires Western-supplied long-range missiles into his country.

I don’t believe President Biden’s handlers are stupid enough to allow Ukraine to fire US-made missiles into the Russian heartland. Their plan is to allow the Ukraine war to drag on for as long as it takes until Russia loses heart and admits defeat.

That plan won’t work. The Russian economy is growing despite Western sanctions, and the Russian army is much bigger now than it was when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

Meanwhile, the war has been a disaster for Ukraine. Its cities and infrastructure are being pounded into rubble.  More than 6 million Ukrainians have fled the country, and thousands of Ukrainian soldiers have been killed or wounded.

There are only two likely outcomes of the war in Ukraine. First, the West can assure Russia that Ukraine will not join NATO and accede to at least some of Russia’s demands for annexation of Ukrainian territory. At the very least, the West must admit that Crimea is part of Russia.

Alternatively, this war can drag on until one side or the other miscalculates, and the war escalates into a nuclear conflict. If that happens, the baby boomer generation will send its grandchildren to Eastern Europe to fight World War III.

Let us suppose the US is plunged into a nuclear war due to missteps by our nation's bungling diplomats. In that case, the Democratic Party can take comfort in the knowledge that its dream of destroying the American economy, American values, and American culture was finally realized.

It was necessary to destroy Ukraine to save it.