Ukraine IS Russia’s HOT War on the west

“The American Empire should be destroyed.”

These words come from Putin’s chief Kremlin ideologist, Aleksandr Dugin. They reflect the worldview driving Russia’s leadership today. The Kremlin is waging a multi-front cold war against the United States, and its invasion of Ukraine is one front in a broader campaign to weaken America.

Russia is not attacking Ukraine solely for expansion or power. There is much more at stake in this war than only Ukraine. Russia is attacking Ukraine as a way to weaken the United States itself. If Russia conquers Ukraine, it can show the world that American promises and American support mean nothing.

Russia does not want to risk a conventional war against American military force. That is why it relies on hybrid warfare to weaken the United States and its allies. Ukraine is the central battlefield in that strategy. By invading Ukraine, Russia seeks to fracture Europe, intimidate its neighbors, and demonstrate that American leadership cannot be trusted.

This strategy is already playing out. Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, the largest land war in Europe since World War II, has resulted in approximately 1.2 million Russian casualties and estimated Ukrainian casualties, including civilians, of between 500,000 and 600,000. At the same time, Russia works to drive division between the United States and its NATO allies, aiming to show that America cannot be relied upon in moments of crisis.

The stakes of this campaign are clear. In 1994, the United States and Ukraine signed the Budapest Memorandum, under which Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons in exchange for American security guarantees. Russia’s 2022 invasion was meant to prove that those guarantees were meaningless, and that American commitments can be violated without consequence.

If Russia is allowed to conquer Ukraine, it will not stop there. Putin has transformed Russia into a war-time economy and key Putin allies have openly boasted that Russia has designs on other countries beyond Ukraine.

Success in Ukraine wouldn’t just validate Russia’s strategy. It would encourage further aggression. There will be millions more casualties. The war would only grow – with a shift to the Baltics, Poland, Finland, and the rest of Eastern Europe, one country at a time, each step further eroding American credibility and influence.

The United States needs to immediately impose tougher economic sanctions against Russia and arm Ukraine to defend itself.