Fighting in Ukraine will be “significant” in the coming months as Russian President Vladimir Putin sets his sights beyond conquering the eastern Donbas region to building a land bridge across the entire Ukrainian Black Sea coast, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
As the conflict heads into what is likely to be a protracted fight, the need to manage NATO unity and public opinion here and abroad has become as much a priority as what is happening on the battlefield.
Finland and Sweden have remained largely neutral in order to maintain cordial ties with the eastern neighbor, but the public sentiment changed in the wake of Russia s invasion of Ukraine.
For many on both sides of the Atlantic, the battles in Ukraine may mark something stark: a “Zeitenbruch” a rupture in history, the closing of one age and the entry into another marked by even deeper uncertainty and great power rivalry.