* Gen Tod Walters, head of Europe Command, appeared before the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday and answered questions about Ukraine
* He described being part of a 'deter and dissuade' effort to prevent invasion
* He admitted that the strategy failed under questioning
* But President Biden has denied that sanctions layered on Moscow had been designed to prevent a Russian invasion of Ukraine
The commander of U.S. forces in Europe on Wednesday admitted that Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine showed that the Biden administration's efforts to 'deter and dissuade' the Russian leader had failed. During the run-up to the invasion, President Joe Biden worked with allies to step up sanctions on Moscow and position troops to strengthen N.A.T.O.'s eastern flank.
Biden himself said it was not part of a deterrence effort last week, but appearing before members of Congress his commander in Europe, Gen. Tod Wolters, offered a different assessment as Republican Rep. Mike Gallagher probed the strategy.
Read more ....
Update #1: US commander admits Biden's deterrence strategy failed in Ukraine (FOX News)
Update #2: US commander acknowledges Biden failed to deter Russia from invading Ukraine -- Washington Examiner
WNU Editor: The Biden administration's approach to Russia and Ukraine in the months leading to the war was to focus on giving Ukraine a military deterrence that would make the cost of war too high for Russia.
But as regular readers of this blog know. The solution to the Ukraine crisis has always been the same .... the need to reach a diplomatic agreement to end the conflict in Ukraine's Donbas.
What is maddening to me is that the ingredients to end the crisis were already present via through the Minsk II agreement that Russia, Germany, France, and Ukraine had signed in 2015. If Ukraine had implemented that agreement, accepted NATO's decision that Ukraine will not be admitted, and worked to meet the EUs requirement that Ukraine must resolve their conflict in eastern Ukraine before being considered for admission, I am 99% sure that we would not be at war today.