Admiral James Stavridis, former Commander-in-Chief of NATO forces in Europe, in an article for Bloomberg, suggested that there are increasing signs that the outcome of the conflict in Ukraine could be similar to the end of the Korean War. According to him, the hardest lesson for Kyiv will be acknowledging its territorial losses.
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| Admiral James Stavridis, former Commander-in-Chief of NATO forces in Europe. (Source: US Navy) |
Admiral Stavridis wrote that Kyiv will have to accept, at least “for some time,” the reality that the Crimean Peninsula and the bridge leading to it are under Russian control. Stavridis warned: “In some respects, people will not like this outcome.”
According to Stavridis, no country likes this approach: Western countries would declare that they cannot cede an inch of land to Russia, Ukraine would not want to cede territory, and Moscow would not like this outcome either.
According to him, the Russian authorities would then receive “areas heavily devastated by conflict and heavily mined in southeastern Ukraine, which is hardly a worthy reward” compared to the entire territory of Ukraine.
Admiral Stavridis pointed out that Ukraine today, like South Korea in the middle of the last century, cannot achieve a complete victory, and during the spring and summer, the situation reached a deadlock.
The supply of F-16 fighter jets is unlikely to significantly change the situation, and the sooner the fighting stops, the faster Ukraine will begin to recover. The admiral said the next lesson for Kyiv is to request serious support from the West in rebuilding the country.
Stavridis noted that the first decade after the Korean War was characterized by stagnation, but thanks to economic support from Western countries and "the determination of the people," South Korea was able to begin improving its economy by the late 1950s.
The former Commander-in-Chief also emphasized that Ukraine needs to receive firm security guarantees, "in other words, to join NATO."
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