RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR: How the War in Ukraine Could Be Won

NATO’s former commander weighs outcomes for Russia’s invasion of the country and sees likely success for Vladimir Putin unless Western powers decide otherwise

- BRENDAN COLE

AS THE WAR IN UKRAINE APPROACHES ITS third year, NATO's former commander envisions three scenarios for the conflict started by Vladimir Putin-and two of them involve a Russian victory.

"If we don't do anything different than we're doing now, eventually, Ukraine will lose because Russia has more people and depth than Ukraine does," former Supreme Allied Commander Europe Philip Breedlove told Newsweek.

"If the West abandons Ukraine, it will fight valiantly but tens of thousands of more Ukrainians will die and eventually Russia will subjugate all of Ukraine, which will once again be a Russian vassal."

But one path offers hope for Ukraine, according to Breedlove, who as NATO commander between 2013 and 2016 witnessed the consequences of Putin's annexation of Crimea in 2014 that preceded his full-scale invasion.

"If the West chooses to give Ukraine what they need to win, Ukraine will win this war," the four-star general said.

"This war is going to end exactly how Western policymakers want and desire it to end." That need for more Western weapons informed Volodymr Zelensky's latest exasperated plea that the fight against Putin is not just Kyiv's. "He's not going to stop until we all finish him off together," the Ukrainian president said last month.

The warning comes as U.S. lawmakers return to Washington after a wing of the Republican Party thwarted a security package that included $61.4 billion for Ukraine before Christmas.

During that congressional recess, Ukraine suffered a Russian bombardment over five days over the New Year in which more than 500 missiles and drones were fired throughout the country, destroying a maternity hospital, schools and apartments and killing 45 people.