Leaders | The tools for the job

The West should supply tanks to Ukraine

Allies have been too cautious about giving it the means to resist Russian aggression

This photograph taken on January 11, 2023, shows a soldier guiding a US Army Bradley Fighting Vehicle (BFV) as it disembarks in the Dutch port of Vlissingen, as US military equipment and vehicles travel to Poland and Lithuania. - - Netherlands OUT (Photo by Remko de Waal / ANP / AFP) / Netherlands OUT (Photo by REMKO DE WAAL/ANP/AFP via Getty Images)
Image: Getty Images

ALMOST eleven months after Russia launched its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, the war has turned static. Since the liberation of the southern city of Kherson two months ago, the battle lines have barely shifted. Fighting is largely restricted to bloody pounding along a short section of the front around Bakhmut, a city in the east of the country that the Russians have been trying to take since August at an appalling price. (On January 10th they claimed to have captured the nearby town of Soledar, but even this is disputed.) Unable to advance, Russia has resorted to blasting Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure. Ukraine, however, is getting better at intercepting missiles and drones, and mitigating the damage using speedy repairs and a swarm of back-up generators.

This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition under the headline “Send in the tanks”

Zero-sum

From the January 14th 2023 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition

More from Leaders

Mario Draghi’s best ideas are those Europe finds least comfortable

The danger is that it picks the easy ones

The Labour government’s worrying lack of ambition in Europe

Sir Keir Starmer is trapped by the mindset of the post-Brexit years


A make-or-break moment for Mexico

In America’s biggest trading partner the rule of law and democracy are under attack


The real problem with China’s economy

The country risks making some of the mistakes the Soviet Union did

What to do about America’s killer cars

The country’s roads are nearly twice as dangerous as the rich-world average. It doesn’t have to be that way

How to deal with the hard-right threat in Germany

As extremists win more votes across Europe, forming moderate and effective governments is getting harder