Periscope

While mourning the deaths during this last week of scores more innocent victims of Russia’s barbaric missile attacks, Ukrainians have been heartened by continuing reassuring signs of strong support from Western friends, who by now have proved themselves to be genuine allies.

This is clear from emerging reports from the high-level economic forum in Davos and the condemnation of Russia’s cynical disdain not only for international law but for the norms of human decency.

And here's something to consider that is not always taken into account. The huge arsenal of missiles that Russia has built up over the years was designed to be used against whom? Certainly not against the proud Chechens who bravely fought for their independence for almost 15 years from the beginning of 1995 to 2009, nor even recalcitrant regions in Russia's Far East. Nor, probably, China, nor North Korea.

They were of course intended to be used against the West. So, each missile that hits Ukrainian cities and towns, bringing death and destruction, is depleting Russia’s deadly arsenal aimed at NATO countries. Each missile strike demonstrates the cynical savagery of the country which promotes the Bolshoi Ballet, Pushkin, Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy as fig leaves behind which to hide its despotic imperialist nature and totalitarian past, complete with the Gulag, Holodomor, Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact, post-Yalta suppression of Eastern Europe, and current frenzied chauvinism and bellicosity.

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Berezhinskaya, a theatre director, had railed against Russia’s actions in Ukraine, saying Moscow’s soldiers were killing civilians and destroying cities in a naked land grab.

So, as Ukraine battles on, almost 11 months after Russia launched its Blitzkrieg to destroy the country, it is reassuring that NATO’s own arsenal is finally, if indirectly, bolstering its resistance and enabling it not only to protect itself but also to carry the fight to its rapacious anti-Western enemy.

For Ukraine is no longer a buffer zone protecting the rest of Europe from Russian imperialism and flaunted military might, but the front line of the West’s defenses. The outcome of Russia’s war against Ukraine will determine the future shape of Europe, its security and prospects, not only of the West and democracy, but of the world as a whole.

So, as is being reiterated in Davos and will be repeated again at the meeting of the coalition of partners of Ukraine in the "Rammstein" format in Germany on Jan. 20: Ukraine needs not only more political and financial support from the West (which is forthcoming and promised), but – critically and urgently as a deciding factor in this war – weapons from NATO countries and possibly others (e.g., Israel, South Korea, Pakistan). These weapons are needed to counteract and overcome the very arms, mercenary “private” forces, and cannon fodder readied by Russia to challenge and humiliate the West and make trouble in other parts of the world.