"Their blood, our bullets": the cold, hard US calculus in Ukraine

Rather than attempt diplomacy with Russia, the US opts for a prolonged "stalemate" in Ukraine.

(MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)

To close out the year of its proxy war against Russia, Washington greeted a visiting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky with lavish praise and pledges of more weaponry. A chorus of voices hailed Zelensky as the second coming of Winston Churchill. The lame-duck Congress approved an additional $45 billion in Ukraine-related spending, most of it on weapons, bringing the official US price tag for the proxy war to more than $105 billion.

The public fawning over Zelensky was belied by sobering admissions in private. Buried in the bipartisan jingoism was the quiet assessment that more US weapons will not turn the tide on the battlefield.