West needs to do more to save Ukraine

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has lasted for over two years with no end in sight, but a Ukrainian victory is possible if the West steps up its aid and the Ukrainian government enforces tighter conscription laws.

Throughout 2024, both Russia and Ukraine have been in a constant stalemate and Ukraine’s resources have been diminishing, holding up even with major manpower shortages.

All together, around six million people fled Ukraine because of the war, 750,000 of those being men from ages 16-60 according to the EU statistics agency, Eurostat.

This is one of the largest issues that Ukraine is facing as many who would be able to be conscripted for military service are fleeing the country.

Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, had to lower their conscription age last year from 27 to 25. It was only put into effect when President Zelensky signed it last month, but I believe that this is not enough of an action.

 Ukraine is at around 35 percent normal capacity in manpower and is in crucial need for anyone that is able to fight. Mass mobilization from cities, villages, and even prisons if possible need to be executed across the nation to have a chance against Russian forces. With that, I believe that the Ukrainian border needs to be more strictly controlled by Ukrainian authorities to keep it closed down so that men can be conscripted to increase Ukraine’s chances of pushing back Russia.

With Russia having around three and a half times more people, their potential army is much larger than Ukraine’s so Ukraine needs long range supplies such as missiles and aircrafts to preserve soldiers and take out the invading forces.

Drone technology is not enough now to repel the Russians on the frontlines so the West needs to give far distance weapons and aircrafts such as F-16s so that Ukraine can attack troops on a larger scale, bases, and even facilities that are aiding the Russian effort inside Russia’s borders.

President Joe Biden has recently sent a large package with ATACMS long range missiles secretly to Ukraine, which attacked Crimean bases, but Ukraine needs even more to fully push Russia out of the eastern territories.

 Both the United States and Europe need to be on board with fully funding Ukraine in this conflict to prevent Russia from getting a buffer zone, similar to the Eastern Bloc the Soviet Union had after the second world war.

Russia has been slowly making gains in the East on May 10, breaking through small villages. If support slows down for Ukraine, it has little chance of survival. 

Overall, the basis of my solution for a Ukrainian victory is to close Ukrainian borders to men that are in legal conscription age. Second of all, the west needs to provide more resources. 

Yes, most European countries and the United States have by now sent billions of dollars of supplies to Ukraine, but this war is the first war with modern technologies in use. Supplies diminished faster simply means that constant aid is crucial.

I believe that we need to pressure western powers more to send the needed aid so Ukraine can come out victorious. And if we don’t, Ukraine’s sovereignty will be lost and we will be sucked into a modern cold war.