Ukraine’s Uncertain Future Looks a Lot Like Spain’s Bloody Past
The Spanish Civil War was a proxy struggle for world powers, which shortly went on to wage a global conflict.
Remember Guernica.
Source: Keystone/Hulton Archive via Getty Images
The war in Ukraine appears to have become a struggle of attrition, and it is unlikely that Kyiv’s long-expected offensive will change this fundamental. US Republicans are stirring new hope in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s breast. If either former President Donald Trump or Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida wins the 2024 election, aid to Ukraine is likely to be drastically cut.
Without continued, massive US backing, the war-torn nation’s hopes of achieving a breakthrough, perhaps even of sustaining its own polity, will be doomed. Putin has placed a huge bet on Western war weariness eventually enabling him to consolidate his claims on the 20% of Ukraine he currently holds, and to call this victory. It is possible that he will be proved right, though it would be an epochal tragedy for democracy and freedom everywhere.