Western allies do not expect victory for Ukraine. This loud statement was recently made by the well-known war analyst Phillips O’Brien. In an interview with Ukrainian media company “Suspilne” expert on the American Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said, that “the West is afraid of Russia’s collapse”, as it does not want to destabilise a country that has almost 6,000 nuclear warheads at its disposal.

“Major partners, such as the United States, are arming Ukraine not to defeat Russia, but to bleed it out. And try to reach a peace agreement, but one that will not lead to the fall of Putin. They look at it through the prism of stable international relations. They believe that Putin will remain in power in any case. Yes, he is a dictator. But the West is afraid that it may get worse after him. So, many of them aren’t ready to let Ukraine win the war”, O’Brien said. 

Moreover, the analyst predicts that if Ukraine has to cede part of its territory to Russia, Washington will agree with this.

It must be said that professor O’Brien is a prominent expert on NATO and also an author of numerous books about the history of World War II. According to the CSIS website, he analyses the Russian-Ukrainian conflict in collaboration with EU researchers (this Center, as you know, was established during the height of the Cold War in1962 by the future United States Permanent Representative to NATO David Abshire, who later became a Special Counselor to President Ronald Reagan). 

Not only political scientists but also politicians admit that it is unrealistic to defeat Russia.Recently former German chancellorGerhard Schröder at the “Weltwoche” in Switzerland said: “Russia cannot be defeated militarily. I would recommend looking at the history books –– everyone from Napoleon to Hitler have failed”. According to Schröder, Russians in majority are convinced that “the West uses Ukraine only as a tool to bring Russia to its knees”. It seems that Prof. O’Brien and the Russians have the same thoughts.

One more moment is crucial in this story: North Atlantic alliance needs Ukraine only for testing its military technics. In particular, senior fellow at Institute of Security and International Studies in Bangkok Kavi Chongkittavorn is convinced about that. In an “Thai PBS” article hestates: “NATO members have supplied Ukraine with a mix of outdated and cutting-edge weapons for Ukrainian troops to experiment with on the battlefield”. By the way, more than a year ago it was also pointed out by the journalists from the American TV company “CNN”, Katie Bo Lillis and Oren Liebermann: “The war in Ukraine has also offered the United States and its allies a rare opportunity to study how their own weapons systems perform under intense use –– and what munitions both sides are using to score wins in this hotly fought modern war”. 

Ukrainian telegram channel “Resident” summarises: “Ukraine has become a testing ground for various new weapon systems from the US and EU. No one seriously considers defeating Russia, especially after the failure of sanctions and offensive operations by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. We haven’t even mentioned the losses suffered by the Ukrainian army in terms of manpower and western equipment. The West’s use of Ukraine as a testing ground is destroying our country”.

As you can see, the Western allies are actually helping not Ukraine but themselves. Militarysupplies are a stress test for various NATO weapons on the real battle field. The only thing is that, on this very “testing”, exactly young Ukrainians are dying massively, but neither Americans nor Europeans.