President Joe Biden is in Europe for summitry meant, the White House says, to symbolize Western unity against Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine. Yet it’s shaping up to be a unity of the weak-willed — and an excuse for Biden to still not draw any red lines.
The prez and most European leaders flinch from any use of hard power, except to send Ukraine more weapons and other supplies to keep on fighting. So they reach for ever more sanctions to inflict, with the next round, The Wall Street Journal reports, to target 100-plus members of the Duma, Putin’s lapdog parliament.
But Europe, addicted to Russian oil and other carbon fuels because it refuses to exploit its own, won’t even go for the sanction that would really hurt: refusing to buy from Putin, and thus choking off Russia’s hard-currency lifeline.
Biden & Co. are encouraged by the stalling of Putin’s land offensive and some successful Ukrainian counter-offensives, hoping the Ukrainians can eventually destroy the autocrat’s forces even as he destroys their cities. But the tide could turn fast: Mariupol can’t last that much longer; the troops besieging it would then move on to other theaters. And Belarusian troops may be inferior, but enough of them can help overwhelm hard-stretched Ukrainian lines.
Plus, Ukraine loses planes (and pilots) every day: It can’t prevent total Russian air superiority forever. Wait much longer to let the Poles transfer those MiGs, and it won’t matter anymore.
Meanwhile, Putin increasingly relies on terror-bombing his way to some kind of victory. That makes it all the more urgent that Biden, with or without allied agreement, publicly set a hard price on what Putin will suffer if he opts to use chemical or tactical-nuclear weapons, as Russian military doctrine dictates.
Already, Russian fire has leveled most of Mariupol and Kharkiv, repeatedly destroying structures where civilians shelter. And it’s fired at least two hypersonic Kinzhal missiles, pointedly noting that the Kinzhal can carry nukes, too.
At a minimum, the nuke threats are a bid to make the West freeze rather than help Ukraine more. Biden has to give the autocrat something to worry about himself, to publicly draw specific red lines detailing the “severe consequences” if Putin tries for a chem or nuke “hail Mary.” As we’ve noted before, concrete responses could include some no-fly zone, or even actual Western military intervention.
It’s past time Biden, and any allies with the guts, put Putin on notice that there are consequences for his barbarity.