IT’S a question that many have been asking. One that, not surprisingly, was put to UK foreign secretary David Cameron last week during an…
IT’S a question that many have been asking. One that, not surprisingly, was put to UK foreign secretary David Cameron last week during an interview on the radio station LBC.
“How does the civilian population of Ukraine or the civilian infrastructure of Ukraine differ from the civilian population of Israel from a humanistic point of view?” asked Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak bluntly, in an interview with American broadcaster NBC News last week. Some say the tone of Zelensky’s messaging of late has changed noticeably, and where once there was dogged optimism, the president’s remarks are now peppered with dire warnings about his country’s fate, through which a certain bitterness at the lack of allied support is also detectable.
Russia controls about 18% of Ukraine, and Western leaders and intelligence chiefs say the war is at a crossroads which could lead to victory for Russia and humiliation for the West unless Ukraine urgently gets more support. Knowing this, Ukraine remains anxious, awaiting confirmation that the massive US package that includes air defence systems and ammunition would be immediately forthcoming.
It’s the lack of air defences especially that are hurting Ukraine, leaving the country exposed to Russian aircraft which for the first time in this war have started dropping thousands of bombs. While much of what has unfolded in the dangerous exchanges between Israel and Iran has been shrouded in the fog of war with both sides embracing ambiguity and deniability as part of their strategy, some details have unfolded.
For now, both Israel and Iran seem satisfied with drawing a line under the recent exchanges, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu clearly having responded to pressure from international allies to show a calibrated, “restrained’ response. So far, an attack on Rafah has been delayed by international pressure, but in exchange for Netanyahu’s caution over striking Iran, Rafah might well be a target on which the Israeli government is unwilling to compromise, again raising questions as to what the response of the US and Israel’s other allies might be.
Speaking last week as accusations of double standards and hypocrisy against Israel’s allies mounted, Dr Frank Ledwidge, a former British military intelligence officer and senior lecturer in war studies at the University of Portsmouth summed up the prevailing thinking in many Western corridors of power.
“Kyiv keeps requesting the same type of protection from the same group of countries for more than two years now. I am sure that Ukraine will raise an argument that if one non-Nato country had been provided with air defence when attacked by a hostile adversary, why should Ukraine be treated differently? Given the dire and urgent situation that Ukraine now faces, that argument is rather convincing,” Landsbergis concluded.
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