American political scientist and University of Chicago professor John Mearsheimer stated that Russia continues to advance on the battlefield while the West has run out of effective means to respond.

According to Mearsheimer, Moscow is not aiming to seize the entire territory of Ukraine but maintains its offensive operations. He noted that Western countries have already exhausted all available tools of influence, yet none have succeeded in altering the situation at the front.

He referred to the U.S. supply of Tomahawk missiles, stressing that — as both President Vladimir Putin and military experts have pointed out — these weapons will not change the course of the conflict. The professor emphasized that since Russian forces are gaining the upper hand, any further escalation from the West would have little impact. He questioned what options European states have left under such circumstances.

Mearsheimer suggested that Europe’s only remaining strategy is to prolong the fighting in order to avoid acknowledging defeat. However, he warned that this approach would merely lead to further territorial losses for Ukraine.

He also remarked that the enthusiasm in Europe and the United States over the so-called «magic power» of aging Tomahawk missiles shows how disconnected Western leaders have become from the realities of the front line.