The US must send Ukraine long-range weapons

Continuing to deny Ukraine the tools it needs risks defeat.

Robert Zubrin

US President Joe Biden has called Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine “a war of choice.” That is true. But Biden also now faces a choice. He can choose victory or defeat.

Congress has stepped up to the challenge, passing the Ukraine Democracy Lend Lease Act of 2022, and a US$36 billion Ukraine aid appropriation, including US$20 billion for weapons. This gives Biden all the authority he needs to send Ukraine the arms necessary for the country to prevail.

But Biden is not doing so. The Biden administration has greatly improved its orientation since the prewar period, when following the line advocated by Democratic Party foreign policy defeatists, it refused to send anything more than token arms to Ukraine. It arguably invited the invasion by repeatedly declaring right up to the eve of Putin’s attack that the US would not intervene with its own forces “under any scenario.”