On June 13, 2015, the US Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and former National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley at the Atlantic Council’s Wroclaw Global Forum (Poland) talked about the ways how the United States and its European allies could help the Ukrainian people defend themselves from Russian aggression.
Hadley: Ukraine Faces ‘Enormous Existential Challenge’ #WGF15 #PutinAtWar http://t.co/b1JMuxOlB0 pic.twitter.com/1jWS2td0KG
— AtlanticCouncil (@AtlanticCouncil) June 14, 2015
Stephen J. Hadley said NATO had not done enough to deter recent Russian aggression:
“Ukraine has to succeed. It is facing an enormous existential challenge. We can’t do things in our traditional, methodical way. We have to do something dramatic. They will not extricate themselves from the economic crisis that the Russian invasion has intentionally put them in. Russia is banking that we will allow them to fail, and that the Ukrainian people will decide at some point that turning west was a mistake,” stated Hadley.
Jeanne Shaheen, noting widespread bipartisan support in Congress for giving Ukraine non-lethal weapons, said that up until now, US President Barack Obama has been unwilling to send lethal weapons to Ukraine under terms of the so-called Minsk II agreement, which aims to end the war in eastern Ukraine.
“But as time goes on and Putin fails to comply with the Minsk agreement, that will be re-evaluated,” she predicted.
“The fact is, Putin’s actions in Ukraine and Eastern Europe have probably united Congress on foreign policy more than anything since I’ve been there. We need to be more strategic not just how to respond in Ukraine, but also with regard to Putin’s next steps, and how we can take action now to counter whatever those steps are,” underlined Jeanne Shaheen.
