THE US-led coalition against Russia is reportedly struggling amidst growing divisions and disagreements among member nations, according to reports on international media.
This comes as Russian-backed forces took majority control of the city of Lyman in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region yesterday. Lyman would represent the second major success for Russia this week, following the fall of Svitlodarsk further south.
A report in The New York Times has highlighted differences between the US, Europe and Ukraine in assessing goals of the current conflict and concessions to be given. It said that the coaliton’s unity was wobbly as the member nations differed on critical decisions.
It also said that the unity between Nato and Europe was being tested as EU states, including Hungary, refrained from backing a ban on Russian oil supplies.
“The US describes Russia as a rogue state which should be excluded from the global economy while others in Europe have warned against such an approach,” the NYT said in a report. It also cited the stance of Henry Kessinger who said that Ukraine may have to give concessions as part of a negotiated settlement.
Meanwhile, leading British newspaper Independent has accused Western countries of being unrealistic in dealing with the war in Ukraine. In an article, journalist Mary Dejevsky highlighted the devastation of Ukraine over the last three months and said “any resolution will proceed from facts on the ground as they are, not as we would wish they were”.
She cited estimates which warned that 30 per cent of Ukraine’s infrastructure had been destroyed and the country’s GDP could shrink by 30 to 45pc this year.
“Ukraine has indeed suffered a serious setback in the war,” she said. “What we have heard over the past week is far from talking about the possibility of Ukraine winning an important victory.”
She also highlighted how “we no longer woke up to news of the latest victories for heroic Ukrainians or the latest setbacks for savage Russians. Or how President Volodymyr Zelensky’s rallying calls – including his latest to the plutocrats in Davos – command a lot less of our airtime than they did.”
Dejevsky pointed to the operation in Mariupol, which the United Nations and the International Red Cross described as an ‘evacuation’ of civilians, while Russians termed it as ‘surrender’.
American sources also said that the US warned Ukraine against hitting targets deep inside Russian territories for fear it would lead to military escalation.