Europe dangerously deluded on Ukraine’s lost war

Europe is facing defeat in Ukraine as its policies on the war go sideways. Europe’s approach is increasingly unreflective of the growing reality on the ground while growing efforts to punish Russia and promote sending troops to Ukraine appear counterproductive.

A good example of this is Germany, which has indicated it will keep supporting Ukraine and push its anti-Russia agenda. Chancellor Olaf Scholz no longer refers to Vladimir Putin as Russia’s president and now only speaks of the Russian leader by his last name, Putin.

However, Germany will not send its long-range Taurus missiles to Ukraine, where they could be used to attack Moscow, because Russia now knows all about the plan due to a communications intercept. The Russians have told Scholz they will retaliate if he sends them – exactly how has been left to Scholz’s imagination.

Scholz’s behavior is no different than that of other leaders in Europe (other than Hungary) and of the super-governmental EU. All of them now understand that the Russians are winning in Ukraine and, bit by bit, Ukraine is collapsing.

That is why French leader Emmanuel Macron is trying so hard to build a coalition to send NATO-country troops to Ukraine. At least so far, his counterparts are listening but holding back. The lack of support for sending Euro troops to Ukraine is not surprising.

From an operational perspective, it would not be easy to move NATO troops to Ukraine beyond those already there. While they might be able to put some troops in western Ukraine, where there is no fighting, they know the Russians would use their long-range missiles and air force to destroy them.

The Europeans have little in the way of deployable air defenses, and if they transferred more of them to protect