The fall of the major Ukrainian city of Kherson on Thursday marks a major turning point in the war, because Ukrainian forces mounted very little resistance and, consequently, the city of 300,000 was spared, contends Russia analyst Clint Ehrlich.
“The message to other cities is clear: Fight and be leveled or surrender and be treated kindly,” he wrote in a thread on Twitter presenting his conclusion that the Ukrainians must face the grim reality that they are outmanned and Russia has shown in the past that it will show no mercy if it meets resistance.
Ehrlich, who has written for Foreign Policy and other publications, was a visiting researcher at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations.
He said that most analysts believe the odds of a ceasefire are increasing in Ukraine, but they “have it exactly backwards.”
“We’ve actually moved closer to the nightmare scenario where Kiev is simply leveled,” he wrote.
Ehrlich said there’s “a real risk that we’re selling the Ukrainians a false bill of goods – just like we did when we promised them NATO membership.”
“They keep asking for a NATO no-fly zone because they know they can’t win without it,” he said. “We aren’t going to give it to them.”
That leaves the West with a “troubling moral quandary.”
“Are we really helping the Ukrainians by encouraging them to fight?”
Ehrlich said he is “awed” by the bravery of the Ukrainians.
“But if the end result is watching [Ukraine] get viciously torn to pieces, was it really worth it?
This post originally appeared on WND News Center.
I don’t think the title of your article matches the content lol. Just kidding, mainly because I had some doubts after reading the article.