Biden and NATO must break Putin’s back in Ukraine

Russia’s overnight aerial attacks Monday on civilian targets throughout Ukraine was a stark reminder that occupying the White House is not a 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. job.

Dozens of young children, doctors and nurses were killed or wounded by an intentional Russian missile strike on the Okhmadyt Children’s Hospital in Kyiv. A Kh-101 Air Launched Cruise Missile struck the hospital, likely delivered by a Tupolev Tu-95 bomber. That bomber took off from an airfield in Russia beyond the 100 km restriction area that the Biden administration imposed upon Ukrainian officials, telling them they cannot strike any farther into Russia.

The scenes were heartbreaking. Bloodied kids. Destroyed operating rooms. Dazed cancer patients connected to IVs being led to safety. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s abject evil is what wrought this heinous attack. A detached President Joe Biden and his escalation-averse national security team, led by Jake Sullivan, helped create the conditions that allowed this to happen. 

Others can debate the politics of it all in context of the November election. We are solely focused on the here and now. The Biden administration is recklessly emboldening Putin to strategically win in Washington and Brussels that which he cannot win on the battlefields in eastern Ukraine and Crimea.

NATO leaders today meeting in Washington must change this self-defeating equation, with or without Biden. It is time for a winning paradigm.

In May, we called on the White House for multiple gamechangers, including a no-fly zone and green lighting the use of U.S.-made weapons against Russian military targets wherever they are staging or launching kinetic attacks against Ukraine.

The White House’s policy of defense — merely shooting down individual missiles — has failed once again. The problem with weapons platforms is that if they are not destroyed, they continue to fire missiles. And the incremental expansion of range restrictions on weapons to counter the attacks only leads to weapons systems being redeployed to wherever Biden continues to give Russian forces sanctuary.

Tragically, Biden failed to establish a no-fly zone to protect Ukrainian civilians. His reluctant decision to allow the use of ATACMS inside of Russia is absurdly limited to hitting only 16 percent of Russian forces that threaten Ukraine along its borders, according to an estimate by the Institute for the Study of War.

Neither will likely be enough to deter Putin. Especially after a State Department official telegraphed last week that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will be told today that Ukraine is still “too corrupt” to join NATO. 

Really? Both the Department of Defense and State Department inspector general reports on corruption in Ukraine suggest the opposite. 

Was Biden at the wheel when his administration decided to cut the legs off of Zelensky ahead of today’s NATO summit? Or was he too diminished?

This is not the same president who in March 2022 boldly and justly said of Putin, “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power.” Now, Biden and his administration are maneuvering to effectively give Putin the win in Ukraine, all under the guise of avoiding escalation. 

Biden was right before. Putin is far too evil for Ukraine not to be afforded the protections of NATO membership. There is nothing new about Putin intentionally weaponizing civilians and the environment. There is nothing new about his use of assassination and disinformation to achieve his war goals against the West and Ukraine. 

We are beyond just gamechangers. It is time for Biden to work alongside NATO members at today’s summit to begin decisively breaking Putin’s back in Ukraine, in the process destroying his capacity and will to continue the fight. 

The first and most obvious step is to affirm that Ukraine will inexorably become a full member of NATO. This has to be non-negotiable. Putin must be made to understand that he will not be able to influence things otherwise. 

In light of these attacks, NATO must come out today with a statement clearly defining Ukraine’s accelerated path to full membership and disavow any White House claims that Kyiv is somehow too corrupt. 

Secondly, NATO must remove all of the farcical rules of engagement preventing Ukrainian forces from striking as deep into Russia’s interior as required to interdict targets to win the war and mitigate deliberate Russian attacks on civilians. 

It also means getting Ukraine what it needs to win on the battlefield now, enabling its forces to conduct joint and combined arms warfare in Crimea. Biden has known since last August what Ukraine’s needs are. He rightly complained when Congress delayed funding, yet that funding was finally approved in April and, three months later, Kyiv still has not received the bulk of what was promised. 

As Zelensky noted only days ago, 14 Ukrainian brigades lack basic equipment. “Slow deliveries” from NATO partners are preventing Ukraine from undertaking counteroffensive operations. It really does invite legitimate questions as to whether Biden is managing the war or not. 

If the former, then now is the time for Biden to be bold. In addition to the above, he should announce today at the NATO summit that the U.S. is going to lead a coalition of the willing and implement an immediate multilayered no-fly zone in western Ukraine.

Putin intended his strike on the Okhmadyt Children’s Hospital as a message to NATO. His renewed escalation against Ukrainian civilians is intended to weaken NATO’s resolve to continue supporting Ukraine. It should have the opposite effect.

There must be no more escalation paralysis within NATO or in Washington. Stop pretending Russia is not the enemy. It is time to meet escalation with escalation.

Biden is at an inflection point in Ukraine. War is a 24/7 undertaking and requires a president to be mentally and physically fit. Either he boldly leads as commander in chief, or he needs to step aside. If he stays, then he needs a winning plan. 

If not, then Biden needs to resign and let someone else lead NATO and the war against Ukraine.

Mark Toth writes on national security and foreign policy. Col. (Ret.) Jonathan Sweet served 30 years as a military intelligence officer and led the U.S. European Command Intelligence Engagement Division from 2012 to 2014.