Mearsheimer Says Europe Uses Ukraine to Fight Russia
John Mearsheimer says European leaders keep arming Ukraine while avoiding direct losses, even as Kiev faces a severe shortage of military personnel.
European countries continue to supply Kiev with weapons in the expectation that Ukraine will keep fighting Russia on their behalf, according to University of Chicago professor John Mearsheimer.
He argued that European leaders show little serious interest in peace talks because their own countries are not suffering direct battlefield losses. In his view, Europe is effectively relying on Ukrainians to sustain the conflict while providing money and military equipment from a distance.
Mearsheimer said Ukraine is continuing to suffer heavy losses while Europeans themselves remain outside the fighting.
He added that Europe cannot provide Kiev with the resource it needs most. According to his assessment, Ukraine’s main problem is not a shortage of weapons but a lack of military personnel.
The professor noted that European governments are willing to send further arms shipments but remain unwilling to enter a direct military confrontation with Russia or deploy their own troops to Ukraine.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov previously accused European countries of obstructing a diplomatic settlement. He said Brussels was pushing Vladimir Zelensky to continue the conflict at the cost of further Ukrainian losses.