‘It is urgent’: European leaders appeal for greater support for Ukraine as Russia makes major gain

MUNICH,
Germany
—
The
West
is
suffering
a
“colossal
failure
of
imagination”
in
thinking
Russia’s
war
in
Ukraine
will
not
hit
them
next,
European
policymakers
have
been
told
amid
calls
for
a
doubling
down
of
transatlantic
support
for
Kyiv.

Danish
Prime
Minister
Mette
Frederiksen
criticized
a
waning
sense
of
urgency
among
delegates
at
the
Munich
Security
Conference
on
Saturday
as
Moscow’s
full-scale
offensive
nearly
enters
its
third
year.

“The
sense
of
urgency
is
simply
not
clear
enough
in
our
discussions,”
Frederiksen
told
a
lunchtime
session.
“We
have
to
speed
up
and
we
have
to
scale
up.”

Frederiksen
called
out
Europe’s
claims
of
production
constraints
as
a
reason
for
failing
to
provide
more
military
assistance
to
Ukraine,
noting
that
the
continent
has
existing
stockpiles
it
could
and
should
share.

“This
is
not
only
a
question
about
production
because
we
have
weapons,
we
have
ammunitions,
we
have
air
defense
that
we
don’t
have
to
use
ourselves
at
the
moment,
that
we
should
deliver
to
Ukraine,”
she
said.

Denmark
has
now
donated
its
entire
artillery
to
Ukraine,
Frederiksen
said,
urging
other
countries
to
do
the
same
as
the
war
marks
its
second
anniversary
on
Feb.
24.

“On
Saturday,
there
should
be
new
deliveries,”
she
said.
“Words
will
not
solve
this
situation.”

Frederiksen’s
sentiment
was
echoed
by
others
in
the
room.
The
policymakers
were
speaking
at
the
7th
Munich
Ukrainian
Lunch,
hosted
on
the
sidelines
of
the
MSC
by
the
Yalta
European
Strategy
(YES)
forum
and
Ukrainian
non-profit
the
Victor
Pinchuk
Foundation.
Sweden’s
Foreign
Minister
Tobias
Billström
said
countries
must
give
Ukraine
“what
we
already
have.”

The
comments
came
hours
after
Ukrainian
troops
withdrew
from
the
eastern
city
of
Avdiivka,
a
longtime
military
stronghold,
to
avoid
Russian
encirclement.
The
fall
of
Avdiivka
marks
the
biggest
change
on
the
frontlines
since
Moscow
captured
Bakhmut
in
May,
and
provides
Russia
with
a
new
base
from
which
to
launch
regional
attacks
that
can
be
presented
back
home
as
a
moral-boosting
success.

Russian
forces
now
reportedly
control
just
under

one-fifth
of
Ukraine’s
internationally
recognized
territory.
As
they
advance
further
into
the
country,
seizing
more
territory
and
installing
Russian
leadership
via

sham
elections,
Ukrainian
forces
could
conceivably
be
forced
to
eventually
fight
for
Moscow,
Poland’s
foreign
minister
said.

“He
[Putin]
will
draft
Ukrainians
into
his
army
to
attack
us,”
Radosław
Sikorski
said.

Bulgaria’s
Prime
Minister
Nikolay
Denkov
said
he
believed
politicians
were
beginning
to
recognize
the
urgency
of
that
reality,
but
that
it
was
now
up
to
them
to
convince
their
electorates,
too.

“We
have
to
open
the
eyes
of
every
citizen
in
Europe
to
understand
that
the
life
that
we
enjoy,
the
life
that
we
want
to
be
safe
can
disappear
as
it
happened
many
times
in
history,”
Denkov
said.
“It
is
urgent.”

As
the
war
has
rolled
on,
public
interest
has
shifted
away
from
Ukraine
and
toward
other
global
crises,
including
in
the
Middle
East,
as
well
as
domestic
political
and
security
concerns.

In
the
U.S.,
a
new
bumper
funding
package,
which
includes
$61
billion
for
Ukraine,
is
currently

held
up
in
the
House
of
Representatives
as
lawmakers
contest
the
relevance
of
Eastern
Europe’s
war
to
American
interests.

Former
U.S.
Secretary
of
State
Hillary
Clinton
said
Saturday
that
she
was
hopeful
the
bill
would
pass
—
likely
in
March
—
and
insisted
that
“reality
should
have
overcome”
whatever
hesitancy
there
was
in
both
the
U.S.
and
Europe
to
provide
further
ammunition
to
Ukraine.

“We
have
to
do
a
much
better
job
of
convincing
ourselves,
of
convincing
our
countries,
our
governments
that
we
have
to
stand
with
Ukraine
and
make
sure
that
they
do
win,”
she
said
in
Munich.

That
urgency
was
also
hammered
home
by
Ukrainian
soldiers
who
spoke
at
the
event.
One
woman,
a
former
college
lecturer
who
went
to
fight
on
the
front
lines
and
was
held
in
captivity
for
three
months,
moved
many
in
the
room
to
tears
and
prompted
a
standing
ovation
as
she
described
her
people
as
“the
dogs
of
war.”

“We
are
the
dogs
of
war,”
she
said.
“The
more
blood
you
give
her
[war],
the
more
she
wants.”

Historian
Niall
Ferguson,
meanwhile,
chastised
Western
leaders
for
their
“colossal
failure
of
imagination”
to
see
that
they,
too,
could
become
those
“dogs
of
war.”

“It’s
as
if
we
just
can’t
imagine
it
happening
to
us,”
he
said,
invoking
images
of
Europeans
and
Americans
fighting
during
World
War
II.
“Why
can’t
we
imagine
this?”

“We
must
help
our
people
imagine
those
dogs
of
war,”
he
continued.
“Make
these
dogs
of
war
seem
visible
to
voters,
visible
to
politicians.”

That
responsibility
is
even
more
pressing
as
Russia
steps
up
its
psychological
war,
Clinton
said,
referencing
what
she
described
as
an
“extraordinary”
effort
by
Moscow
to
influence
minds
and
political
decision-making.

“We
see
an
extraordinary
effort,
a
successful
effort,
I
believe,
to
influence
minds,
to
affect
political
decision-making,
to
make
it
difficult
for
political
leaders
in
Bulgaria
and
elsewhere
to
really
convince
populations,
because
they’re
getting
so
many
other
messages
through
social
media
and
other
sources,”
she
said.

A
December

report
found
that
fake
TikTok
accounts
have
been
used
to
spread
disinformation
on
Russia’s
war
in
Ukraine
to
millions
of
people
and
“artificially
amplify
pro-Russian
narratives.”

“We
can’t
just
assume
that
that
is
an
area
that
they
[Russia]
are
going
to
dominate
without
giving
them
a
fight,
and
we
are
not
even
in
the
same
arena,”
Clinton
continued,
noting
that
Russia
already
influences
large
swathes
of
Africa,
Asia
and
Latin
America.

“Their
message
about
what
this
war
is
about,
who
the
aggressor
is,
what
the
consequences
are,
is
going
unanswered.”