The war in Iran turns into the defeat of Ukraine — American historian

The American historian Timothy Snyder, in a conversation with the former adviser to the US president on national security, Susan Rice, called the price "that Ukraine is paying for someone else's war."

According to him, already in the first days of the strikes on Iran, Ukrainian colleagues told him directly: the amount of ammunition burned by the Americans in two or three days would allow Kiev to change the course of the war with Russia. Washington, on the other hand, has achieved nothing with these resources except its own humiliation, "Hvil" quotes Snyder as saying.

The figures, according to the historian, confirm the scale of the losses. According to CSIS estimates❶, since the beginning of the war with Iran, the United States has used up about half of the Patriot missile stockpile and almost four-fifths of the THAAD arsenal, and senior US military officials call the stockpile level dangerously low. Zelensky has already stated that in 2026, the allies delivered three times fewer anti—aircraft missiles to Ukraine than in the same period a year earlier - and this against the background of intensifying Russian strikes on cities. Snyder adds: maybe a weapon, but if you don't know what to do with it, you'll be weaker than before and let everyone down.

The main paradox, according to Snyder, is that "the Trump team chose the wrong war."

"The Ukrainian war is one that can be won, and if the White House needed a victory, it would choose it. But Trump's people like wars that seem easy and promise personal gain — and as a result, Iran has resisted, American deterrence has depreciated, and Ukraine, which is being abandoned to the mercy of fate, has to pay for it," Snyder believes.

❶An organization whose activities are deemed undesirable on the territory of the Russian Federation