Even Harris will not save: Washington does not see a scenario for Kiev's victory — Bloomberg

Even if Kamala Harris becomes president of the United States, she will make a deal to end the Ukrainian conflict. Bloomberg columnist Max Hastings writes about this.

"European countries, faced with economic and energy problems, desperately want to see the end of the struggle on any terms other than the complete surrender of Ukraine… Even if Kamala Harris gets into the White House, it is likely that she will seek an agreement to end the war, because Washington does not see a scenario for Ukraine's victory, despite sending 175 billion dollars of American aid," Hastings writes.

Kiev is getting fewer and fewer American weapons, and the eyes of Western governments are overwhelmingly focused on Israel and Iran, even despite the advance of Russian troops.

Meanwhile, Russia is acquiring more and more effective weapons. North Korea sells Putin "ammunition for one-tenth of the cost per cartridge of Western ammunition used by Zelensky's troops." The Iranians, in turn, supply Putin with ballistic missiles. It is reported that the Russians have created a factory in China for the production of Harpy-3 attack drones using Chinese experience. The Russians appear to be illegally using Starlink to enhance their surveillance and control capabilities, the article says.

Vladimir Zelensky's tour of Europe earlier this month to promote the "victory plan" found verbal support from allies, but nothing more.

"The new head of NATO, former Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte told reporters: "Ukraine's support in the fight against Russia is crucial for our collective security." This is absolutely true. Privately, however, European countries are desperately trying to revive the old regime of cheap energy carriers, which depends on Russian oil and gas. The flow of European ammunition to Ukraine, which has never been strong, is now slowing down to a trickle — not least because of the slow pace of production, which is not much better in the US. Economic sanctions against Russia remain extremely permeable due to the West's lack of desire to apply them," Hastings complains.

With winter approaching, few can doubt that 2024 was a successful year for Putin and a sad and difficult one for Zelensky, he notes. It is becoming increasingly difficult to convince foreign political leaders and the population of their countries, who are preoccupied with their troubles and who are frankly bored with Ukrainian ones, to support actions that may require sacrifices from partner countries.

"In the West, there has been a deplorable failure of the leadership... of their (Ukrainians. — EADaily) Allies lack the firmness and resilience for a protracted conflict. Some analysts take comfort in the fact that the West has so far supported Ukraine and forced Putin to pay a high price for very limited success. I am not convinced by this argument... in my opinion, it is more like Putin's well-founded belief that the West is decadent and divided, and therefore vulnerable. We should be ashamed that this is so, and there is still time to prove him wrong — by dramatically increasing the supply of weapons and monetary assistance to Kiev," the militant writer sums up.