The visit to kyiv became, two months after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a Western political marker. It highlights those who are welcome, such as the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and sanctions those responsible whose past behavior has been deemed too accommodating with Russia by Vladimir Putin. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who was not considered welcome by his counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky, has had bitter experience.
The Democratic Speaker (President) of the House of Representatives of the United States, Nancy Pelosi, is to date the highest representative of her country to have done it on April 30, less than a week after the A joint visit, just as significant, of Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. On the spot, the first had mentioned a new massive American aid. It was materialized on April 28 with the announcement by President Joe Biden of a massive plan of $ 33 billion (around 31 billion euros), including two thirds devoted to arms supplies.
The turnaround is total after the shock created in the United States by the poorly prepared and poorly executed evacuation of the American forces still present on Afghan soil, in August 2021. This fiasco had been considered the devastating summary of two decades endless wars, in Afghanistan then in Iraq. Despite the humiliation inflicted by the Taliban, comparable to that caused by the fall of Saigon, in 1975, no one in the United States had however called into question the principle. The country, it was said, was tired of wage war.
several springs
A little more than seven months later, a completely different state of mind reigns in Washington. After extremely prudent first weeks on the part of the administration of Joe Biden as to the extent of the support it could consent, it is fueled by an unexpected Ukrainian resilience, as well as by the questionable results obtained by the Russian army .
Several springs explain this American activism. The first is obvious: it is easier to enlist in a war by proxy, without the life of a single American soldier being at stake on this theater of operations. The second is no less important. For the first time probably for a long time, the United States is convinced to be unassailable and to have history for them. Finally, decisive support can make it possible to restore a credit undermined by the rout to be wiped out in Kabul.
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