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Ukraine backfires on the West in 2023. Photo/Reuters
LONDON – The last 12 months have seen a number of setbacks for the United States, Europe and other large democracies on the international political stage.
Nothing catastrophic for now. But they point to a shift in the balance of power away from the US-dominated Western values that have ruled for years.
In many areas, the wind is blowing in the wrong direction for Western interests.
8 Reasons 2023 Will Be a Difficult Year for the West
1. The Ukrainian War
Photo/Reuters
Despite some recent successes in the Black Sea, the war is not going well for Ukraine. This means it will have a devastating impact on NATO and the EU, which have financed Ukraine’s war effort and its economy to the tune of tens of billions of dollars.
According to the BBC, last year, NATO had high hopes that, equipped with modern military equipment and intensive training in Western countries, the Ukrainian army could capitalize on the gains made that fall and drive the Russians out of most of the territory they had seized. . That hasn’t happened yet.
The problem is time. NATO countries took a long time to think about whether they dare send modern Main Battle Tanks such as the British Challenger 2 and German Leopard 2 to Ukraine, in case it provokes President Vladimir Putin into reckless retaliation.
In the end, the West sent the tanks, President Putin did nothing. But when they were ready to deploy to the battlefield in June, Russian commanders had looked at the maps and correctly guessed where the main Ukrainian effort would be.
Ukraine, they estimated, wanted to advance south through the Zaporizhzhia oblast towards the Sea of Azov, driving a wedge in the Russian path, cutting them in half and cutting off Crimea.
The Russian army may have performed poorly in its bid to take Kyiv in 2022, but their advantage is in defense. While Ukrainian brigades train in England and elsewhere in the first half of 2023, and as tanks are sent eastward to the front lines, Russia is building the largest and most extensive line of defensive fortifications in modern history.
Anti-tank mines, anti-personnel mines, bunkers, trenches, tank traps, drones and artillery all combined to thwart Ukraine’s plans. The much-vaunted counteroffensive had failed.