US, allies must stop playing 'Patriot games' with Ukraine

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After I questioned Israel's endgame in Gaza in a column, a reader asked, "Do you know what President Joe Biden's endgame is in Ukraine?"

That is a critical question as Russia revs up a new offensive, mercilessly bombing civilian targets in Ukraine's second largest city, Kharkiv. Meantime, Washington is still withholding the Patriot air defense systems the Ukrainians have been urgently requesting for more than two years.

Congress' six-month aid delay hurt Ukraine badly and gave the Russians an opening to gear up for this offensive. Yet even as U.S. aid finally starts flowing, the administration appears unwilling to commit to Ukrainian victory.

And yes, given Ukraine's technological ingenuity and belief it is fighting an existential battle for survival, I believe a victory is still possible, if the West has the will and the strategic smarts to help Kiev achieve that goal.

Yet the White House seems geared only to preventing a Ukrainian collapse, not putting Putin on the back foot. Joe Biden's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, has suggested that Ukraine can "hold the line" in 2024 and start retaking territory by 2025. Yet that scenario depends on continued U.S. military aid, which in turn requires a Biden victory in November. Neither is guaranteed.

Keep in mind that negotiations with Moscow are not an option in the foreseeable future. Emboldened by his alliance with Beijing and weapons from Iran and North Korea, Putin has made clear his goal is to eliminate Ukraine's independent statehood, which he claims is illegitimate.

What's lacking in the U.S. approach to Kiev is the sense of urgency the White House has displayed over Gaza, sending top officials to Jerusalem and Saudi Arabia over and over, even though the outcome there is likely to be dismal. That same sense of urgency could still make a critical difference in Ukraine.

Nowhere is that truth more self-evident than with what I refer to as "Patriot games."

Ever since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, President Volodymyr Zelensky has been begging the West to help "close the skies" over Ukraine by sending U.S.-made Patriot systems. The country's aging Soviet air defense systems are no match for the Kremlin's arsenal of cruise and even ballistic missiles that wreak deliberate destruction on city centers and energy systems. That and the longtime U.S. reluctance to send U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets, or let European allies deliver them, has left Ukraine unable to control its skies.

With its army of techies, a limited number of aging Russian planes, and limited air defense systems from Europe, Ukraine did its best. But it was not until Kiev finally received three Patriot systems in spring 2023 — one from the Pentagon, two from Germany — that the capital, Kiev, finally became safe. However, beautiful historic Kharkiv, the vital port city of Odesa, and other critical cities remain open to Russian air attack.

In recent weeks, as Russia tries to crush Ukraine's civilian infrastructure, Ukraine's lack of Patriot air defense systems (and interceptor missiles to fire from them) has become a disaster.

Here is where the Patriot games begin.

According to European officials, Western allies have 100 Patriot systems, the bulk of them held by the United States at home or at overseas bases. Yet only Germany has committed sending one more system to Ukraine.

"One of the things I do every single day is talk to at least one ally, if not multiple, about getting more Patriot batteries into Ukraine," Jake Sullivan said at a May 13 news conference. Sullivan seems not to have had much success.

Six NATO allies — Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, and Spain — currently operate Patriot systems, yet all except Germany have pleaded they need their systems for their own defense.

Perhaps Sullivan would have better luck if the Pentagon would stop making the same excuses and offer up one more system of its own.

Moreover, the Israeli Air Force has announced that it is retiring its American-made Patriot systems in favor of newer air-defense systems that it used to repel Iranian missile attacks on April 13. Jerusalem has offered Kiev no military aid for fear of offending Russia, whose tacit permission it needs to bomb Iranian operations in Syria. Given Washington's support for Israel, despite their differences over Gaza, the White House should be leaning on Israeli leaders to sell the systems back to Washington for transfer to Kiev.

This is the kind of urgent action required to turn around the situation in Ukraine.

"We would like to close the airspace over all our regions and have 20 to 30 [Patriot systems]," Zelenskyy said in an interview with the New York Times. "Let's forget about that. Can we get seven?" (That's the minimum required to protect Ukraine's major cities, including two for Kharkiv.)

"And an American decision to give us its F-16s," the Ukrainian leader added, his frustration clear.

If the White House really wanted Ukraine to push back the Russians, it would make sending those Patriots a priority. And the F-16s.

And, as Zelensky has pleaded, it would stop forbidding Kiev from using U.S.-made weapons to hit the sites just across the Russian border from which missiles are being fired at Ukrainian cities. Otherwise, Ukraine is fighting with an arm and leg tied behind its back.

Instead, the Biden team still seems to be deterred by Russia's nuclear bluster. Yet, when the White House finally, and quietly, sent ATACMS long range missiles to Ukraine last month, crossing a Putin redline, the Russian autocrat's threats of nuclear escalation proved hollow. His threats are meant mainly to deter the West from giving Kiev what it needs to win.

"Seven systems," Zelensky repeated in the Times interview. "Do you think it is too much for the NATO anniversary summit in Washington? For a country that has been trying to become a NATO member since 2008? For a country that is fighting for freedom and democracy around the world today?"

As the 75th anniversary summit of NATO approaches, a clear symbol of America's commitment to supporting Ukraine until victory — and encouraging its allies to do likewise — would be to stop playing Patriot games and deliver the goods.

(COMMENT, BELOW)

Trudy Rubin
Philadelphia Inquirer
(TNS)

Previously:

• 05/15/24: The biggest story last week was not Stormy Daniels or campus protests

• 11/20/23: Documentary sheds light on Putin's mass murder in Ukraine

• 11/16/23: Even Tlaib should know better

• 9/22/23: Russia's kidnapping of Ukrainian children under the spotlight at United Nations

• 9/22/23: Biden should resolve the blockage of visas for Iraqis and Afghans who helped our troops

• 9/11/23: Even on vacation, there's no escaping Putin's murderous intentions

• 08/18/23: With new weapons slow to arrive from NATO allies, Ukraine surprises Putin with sea drones

• 08/09/23: Lessons from a military funeral in Ukraine

• 07/28/23: As Russian missiles again rain down on Odesa, Putin sneers at the UN and NATO allies

• 07/24/23: Putin is playing a game of food blackmail. The West can't let him win

• 07/19/23: Can Ukraine win the war against Russia? I'm traveling there to find out

• 07/17/23: From hell to Harvard: One Ukrainian's escape and how you can help fulfill her dreams

• 07/11/23: At the NATO summit in Vilnius: Will Biden seize or squander the chance to end Putin's war on Ukraine?

• 04/21/23: The Pentagon documents leak will embolden Putin as he tries to outlast Ukraine

• 03/22/23: The Russian attack on a U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drone underlines why we must help Ukraine win

• 03/15/23: Will the White House have the courage to propel a Ukrainian victory this year?

• 02/21/23: On the first anniversary of Putin's invasion, Ukraine fights on for its independence and for the security of the West

• 02/17/23: A former Pakistani leader's death, and his wise peace plan that failed

• 02/09/23: Earthquakes killed nearly 12,000 people this week. Three men are partly to blame

• 01/24/23: As Russia murders civilians in Dnipro, why won't NATO send weapons that could end the war?

• 12/28/22: What Zelensky worried about when he addressed a cheering Congress

• 12/13/22: The US-China conflict to watch is the Chip War --- which centers on Taiwan

• 09/14/22: Ukraine scores sudden breakthrough that should energize Western support

• 09/09/22: Queen Elizabeth's death deprives Britain and the world of a rock of stability

• 09/08/22: After Gorbachev's death, Putin wants the world to know he is the 'anti-Gorbi'

• 08/26/22: 6 months after Russia's war vs. Ukraine began, the West still won't give Kiev the weapons to win

• 08/15/22: Ukraine's civilian volunteers work to give aid and rebuild, even as Russia continues to bomb them

• 08/08/22: A trip near the front lines finds Ukrainian troops ready for a battle that could decide the war

• 06/13/22: The critical battles for Ukraine and for America are being fought right here, right now

• 05/02/22: Save Odesa to save the world from hunger and high food prices

• 05/02/22: Bloodless Ukrainian War, not utopian fantasy says one-time largest foreign investor in Russia

• 04/11/22: The only way to end Putin's war crimes

• 03/28/22: Don't let Putin's nuclear and chemical threats stop us from giving Ukraine what it needs

• 03/24/22: An elegy for Mariupol, where I walked six weeks ago. Now razed by Russian bombs

• 03/18/22: Zelensky's brilliant speech should impel Biden and Congress to protect Ukrainian skies

• 03/11/22: Mariupol's bombed maternity hospital exemplifies why NATO should protect Ukraine's skies

• 03/10/22: No 'no-fly zone'? Then NATO must find another way to protect Ukraine's skies

• 03/07/22: The third World War has already started in Ukraine. Europe and the US should wake up

• 03/04/22:Putin must be stopped from turning Kiev into Aleppo

• 03/02/22:Why is Belarus helping Russia invade Ukraine? An explainer on the latest in the conflict

• 02/25/22: What the UN should finally do about Russia

• 02/24/22: Why Putin's Ukraine aggression will change the world --- an explainer on how we got here

• 02/10/22: Ukrainian civilians train for war with cardboard guns: 'We are scared but we are ready

• 01/13/22:Putin wants to reestablish the Russian empire. Can NATO stop him without war?

• 12/10/21: Can Biden and NATO prevent Putin from invading Ukraine? Summit puts it to the test

• 12/02/21: Boris Johnson stirs up new Irish Troubles for his own personal political gains

• 11/22/21: Xi Jinping thinks America is on the rocks. Is he correct?

• 08/18/21: President Biden, get our Afghan allies on evacuation planes

• 08/18/21:The horror of Afghan women abandoned by Biden's troop pullout

• 08/09/21:China is pushing a big COVID-19 lie that makes a new pandemic harder to prevent

• 05/27/21: Punish Belarus leader for Ryanair hijacking before air piracy becomes dictators' new tool

• 04/14/21: Can Beethoven temper the political tensions between US and China?

• 06/01/20: US must stand with Hong Kong against Beijing's efforts to crush its freedoms

• 05/20/20: COVID-19 offers a chance to halt Iran's hostage diplomacy

• 05/21/14: Newscycle spurs visit to country my family fled

• 04/21/14: Blind to Putin's strategy?

• 12/24/13: Obama's Syrian indifference has led to more death and destruction. Meet some real heroes

• 12/13/13: Where liberals have come to love the military

• 12/09/13: The China strategy

• 11/05/13: Return to Iraq is worth a close look

• 10/01/13: Obama's call to Iran: Who was really on the line?

• 09/11/13: How Obama got Syria so wrong

• 07/24/13: It's time for Obama to tell Putin 'nyet'

• 05/15/13: What Russia gave Kerry on Syria --- very little

Trudy Rubin is a columnist and editorial-board member for the Philadelphia Inquirer.