Former U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton warned that if the West’s unity and determination are insufficient this year to help Ukraine achieve an unambiguous victory, regimes such as China, Iran, and North Korea will be happy to take advantage of the West’s “weakness.” worse.

(Reuters file photo)

[Central News Agency] Former US national security adviser Bolton warned that this year is very critical for Ukraine; if the unity and determination of the West is insufficient to help Ukraine achieve an unambiguous victory, regimes such as China, Iran, and North Korea will be happy to take advantage of the West. The "weakness" of China's international situation is likely to go from bad to worse.

On the 2nd, John Bolton published a commentary in the British "Daily Telegraph", reminding the West not to "feel good" easily, giving Russian President Vladimir Putin the opportunity to say in a difficult situation win.

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky delivered a speech to the U.S. Congress in December last year. In addition to thanking Western countries for supporting Ukraine in its war of aggression against Russia, he also emphasized that Ukraine needs more weapons and other assistance.

Bolton pointed out that if Washington and London fail to fully assist Ukraine in the next 12 months, the negative effects will go far beyond the Russian-Ukrainian battlefield itself.

Although Ukraine has a high morale and receives arms and intelligence support mainly from the United Kingdom, the United States and some Eastern European countries, and the performance of the Russian armed forces is appallingly poor, the battle is now indeed at a stalemate.

According to Bolton's analysis, even though the economic sanctions launched by the West have hurt the Russian economy, Ukraine's economic situation is even worse, and a large part of its physical capital has been wiped out in the flames of war.

Finland and Sweden made historic decisions to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in light of the apparent security threat from Russia, only to be met with timely assistance from Russia's commercial and military partners, including NATO member Turkey.

"The real problem is unity and determination in the West, neither of which is inevitable," Bolton asserted.

For example, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz declared a "zeitenwende" (Zeitenwende) in German foreign policy shortly after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February last year, and that Germany's defense spending in 2023 will exceed the NATO agreed in 2014. The threshold of 2% of gross domestic product (GDP) will be established, and a fund with a total amount of up to 100 billion euros will be established to facilitate the purchase of weapons.

However, Bolton pointed out that, in fact, Germany's normal defense expenditure in 2023 will be smaller than that in 2022. The defense expenditure reaching 2% of GDP is currently postponed until 2025, and there is currently no implementation plan for the 100 billion euro fund.

On the other hand, French President Emmanuel Macron was openly thinking about Putin until early December last year.

One of the fundamental problems, "as Putin has always argued," is Russia's "fear of NATO coming to its doorstep," Macron said.

Macron further stated that the West should be ready to provide Russia with security guarantees on the day when Russia returns to the negotiating table.

Bolton criticized Macron for repeating Moscow's old arguments, but there was no evidence Ukraine had ever posed any threat to Russia's security, and NATO has always been a defensive alliance.

More importantly, the aggressor should not be given security guarantees just because of the honor of being present to discuss the possibility of withdrawing aggression, or even taking any concrete measures such as withdrawing troops.

In the United States, Bolton mentioned that many media are diligent in criticizing a small number of right-wing isolationists in the Republican Party for opposing Washington's aid policy to Ukraine, but ignore the lethality of the so-called "progressives" who are left-leaning in the Democratic Party.

Bolton pointed out that these so-called "progressives" criticize and complain that Ukraine has spared no effort.

In October last year, 30 Democratic congressmen jointly signed a letter to President Joe Biden, urging him to actively take a commensurate "diplomatic push" in addition to providing military and economic support to Ukraine.

Bolton said the call played into Moscow's hands.

He warned that Russia will still have poor military performance in the new year, the domestic economic situation may become more tense, and Putin's political status may decline, but as long as Russia does not withdraw its troops from Ukraine for a day, the pressure within the West may increase Therefore, the leaders of the United Kingdom and the United States must have the correct strategy, so that the wish of the Ukrainian people to "happy New Year with victory" can be realized.