Empower Ukraine to resist Russia's meat

Ukrainian forces and Russian Wagner Group mercenaries are fighting pitched battles in and around Bakhmut and Soledar in southeastern Ukraine.

The battlefield is littered with corpses exposed to the elements for days, if not weeks. It's literally hell on earth. Despite marginal gains, President Vladimir Putin is likely hoping to trade Russian mercenary casualties for Ukrainian exhaustion and collapse. As of Tuesday, the Kyiv Independent estimated that Russian casualties exceed 112,000 and that upward of 10,000 occurred in recent weeks. Still, Putin wants to turn Bakhmut and Soledar into Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's bloody meat grinder. To that end, the Kremlin may be preparing to mobilize an additional 500,000 conscripts.

Zelensky and his military advisers are making a high-stakes bet of their own. They are counting on the bloody stalemate to weaken Putin's military markedly. If successful, Kyiv will have reshaped the battlefronts for future Ukrainian counteroffensives — and will have decisively exhausted Russia's defensive capacity.

US TO START TRAINING UKRAINIANS ON PATRIOT MISSILE SYSTEM IN OKLAHOMA NEXT WEEK

The challenge for the West is thus to ensure that Bakhmut and Soledar do not become stagnant killing fields of decomposing flesh. The United States and NATO must enable Ukraine with the capability to maneuver against and interdict Russian forces before they arrive on the battlefield. Defense, as U.S. Gen. George S. Patton asserted, does not win wars. Nor will a defensive Ukrainian posture win this war. Kyiv must be empowered to go on the offensive. Presently, most of the fighting and dying are contained inside the borders of Ukraine. The West can no longer afford to give Putin this kind of decisive military advantage — and sanctuary for his troops in Belarus and Russia.

To check this unfair battlefield disparity militarily, Ukraine needs weapons and munitions to extend Putin's battlefield into Russia and Belarus. Waiting for the next human wave of Russian mercenaries is no longer justifiable. Ukraine must be empowered to take the offensive to Putin.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Jonathan Sweet, a retired Army colonel, served 30 years as a military intelligence officer. Follow him on Twitter @JESweet2022.

Mark Toth is a retired economist, historian, and entrepreneur who has worked in banking, insurance, publishing, and global commerce. Follow him on Twitter @MCTothSTL.