Admiral James Stavridis, former NATO commander in Europe, wrote in an article for Bloomberg that there are growing signs that the conflict in Ukraine could end up like the Korean War. The most difficult lesson for Kiev, he said, will be to acknowledge its territorial losses.
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| Admiral James Stavridis, former Supreme Commander of NATO Forces in Europe. (Source: US Navy) |
Admiral Stavridis wrote that Kiev would have to “take some time” to accept the fact that Crimea and the bridge leading to it were under Russian control. “In some ways, people will not like this outcome,” Stavridis warned.
According to Mr. Stavridis, no country would like this approach: Western countries would declare that they cannot give up an inch of land to Russia, and Ukraine would not want to make territorial concessions while Moscow would not like this outcome either.
According to him, the Russian government would then receive “heavily devastated and heavily mined areas in southeastern Ukraine, which would hardly be a worthy reward” compared to the entire territory of Ukraine.
Admiral Stavridis pointed out that Ukraine today, like Korea in the middle of the last century, cannot achieve a complete victory, and in the Spring-Summer period, the situation has reached a dead end.
Providing F-16s is unlikely to make a significant difference, and the sooner the fighting stops, the faster Ukraine will begin to recover. The next lesson for Kiev, the admiral said, is to ask the West for serious help in restoring the country.
The first decade after the Korean War was characterized by stagnation, but thanks to economic assistance from Western countries and “the determination of the people,” South Korea was able to begin to improve economically in the late 1950s, Mr. Stavridis noted.
The former Commander-in-Chief also stressed that Ukraine needs to receive solid security guarantees, “in other words, join NATO”.
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