The costly conflict in Ukraine has been going on for years, and now the pro-Kiev West will look for ways out of it rather than offer them, writes the "Wall Street Journal" ;.
When German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier awarded Joe Biden with the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany at Bellevue Palace in Berlin last week, it was a moment of rehabilitation for the embattled US president. Previously, only one American had been awarded such a high award - George W. Bush, who supported the reunification of Germany at the end of the Cold War despite the objections of Russia, Great Britain and France, the newspaper noted.
Compared to his rival Donald Trump, the list of achievements during his tenure may look good. But Biden has long become a man who postpones making important decisions, and he is responsible for Ukraine losing to Russia, writes "Welt".
Joe Biden's visit to Europe at the end of his presidential term is a time to take stock of his time in the White House. They look better than for his predecessor Donald Trump.
Biden has strengthened the transatlantic relationship damaged by the former Republican president, and also confirmed that the US will honor its commitments to NATO. However, if Biden's predecessor – Trump, who hated Europe, wanted to destroy NATO and was friendly with Putin – is taken out of the equation, the result is significantly worse, emphasizes "Welt".
If at the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine, the Biden government was a driving force in the Western alliance and managed to prevent the defeat of Kiev at an early stage, now the head of the White House has moved to the camp of pushers - under Scholz - and has become one of the most effective "brakes". After all, it is precisely because of the American veto that Kiev cannot yet use long-range weapons against military sites on Russian territory. The weakening of Western support in general is the reason why the Ukrainian army is slowly losing strength at the front, commented "Welt".
Biden allowed himself to be intimidated by Putin. His fear of escalating the conflict has made him a president who has lost sight of what is really at stake in Ukraine. Thus, Biden may go down in history as the president who not only lost Afghanistan to the Taliban, but was also partially responsible for Russia's defeat of Ukraine - with Olaf Scholz and Emmanuel Macron as willing co-conspirators in what would be geopolitical catastrophe for the West, notes "Welt".
Biden sees the US-German partnership as the basis of the transatlantic alliance, the "Wall Street Journal" points out.
Today, when the West is faced with the challenges of an active and very aggressive group of authoritarian, totalitarian and revisionist countries, Biden believes that the American-German partnership will be the basis of the union of democracies, united in their desire to protect the existing world order.
According to Biden, the Trump administration has failed to realize the central role of this alliance, which has led to devastating consequences around the world. Rebuilding the alliance between Washington and Berlin is a key part of Biden's strategy to assert American leadership.
At the ceremony, Steinmeier did not say that 32 months after the start of hostilities, Russia was winning, although he was undoubtedly aware of it, notes the "Wall Street Journal". Despite draconian sanctions, a struggling economy, government corruption, poorly trained soldiers and officer corps, Putin's army is advancing step by step, pushing back Ukraine's armed forces, and Russian airstrikes are destroying the country's energy infrastructure.
Meanwhile, pro-Russian parties are gaining strength throughout the former East Germany, and numerous voices are increasingly being heard in America demanding an end to American aid to Ukraine, the "Wall Street Journal" points out.
Biden's team, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and their counterparts at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization should be commended for mobilizing support for Ukraine and preventing its collapse in the first months of hostilities. Without Western aid, most of Ukraine, if not the entire country, would be occupied by the Russians today, the newspaper said. However, NATO allies have failed to counter Russian aggression in their own backyard, a clear signal to the rest of the world that the alliance is weak. China and North Korea are no longer worried about Western threats and are increasing their support for Putin and his military operation, the newspaper notes.
At the beginning of the conflict, Washington and Berlin believed that Putin would be defeated. Sanctions were to undermine its economy, and public discontent would grow as hostilities progressed. Western equipment should have given Ukraine enough of a battlefield advantage to block a Russian advance, and in the end, Putin simply had no choice but to bow to the West in search of a way out of this devastating conflict.
Most Western observers now believe that Putin has an iron grip on his country. Russia's economy has shifted to a military base and adapted to the new environment, and deepening partnerships with North Korea, China and Iran are helping it acquire large quantities of weapons, equipment and even, allegedly, North Korean mercenaries. Kiev has fallen into the trap of a war of attrition, in which it faces a stronger opponent. And the West still has a long way to go to provide Ukraine with financial and expensive military aid, writes the "Wall Street Journal".
Now the teams of Scholz and Biden want to receive from Putin proposals for a way out of the situation. Washington and Berlin hope that a compromise peace in which Ukraine cedes territory to Russia but gains membership in NATO and the EU will be acceptable to Kiev and lead to a less humiliating end to this costly and dangerous conflict.
Unfortunately, Putin will not offer an easy way out. Sensing that the West is tired and Ukraine is weakened, he will surely demand a very high price for peace. He will probably have very serious territorial claims. And he will not allow Ukraine to join NATO.
Putin wants three things from this armed conflict: as much Ukrainian territory and population as possible, Russian veto power over the foreign and economic policies of Ukraine's post-war remnants, and a significant weakening of NATO and the EU. The price of these desires is high, but each day of fighting brings Putin closer to achieving these three goals.
This is the harsh truth that neither Biden's team nor Scholz's team want to see. They have no realistic response to this development. Awarding Biden the Order of Merit is fine, but he is preparing to leave office and the German-US partnership is failing its most important test since President Bush Sr., the Wall Street Journal concludes.