Ukraine fatigue: Ukrainian peasants from a war memorial in Kyiv

Ukraine Fatigue

Picture of Leigh Turner
Leigh Turner

Is the world suffering from “Ukraine fatigue”? It is, and it matters immensely. The security of all of us is at stake – wherever you live.

Ukraine fatigue: Ukrainian peasants from a war memorial in Kyiv

Ukrainian partisans from a Soviet-era war memorial in Kyiv

Giorgia Meloni on Ukraine fatigue

‘I see that there is a lot of fatigue, I have to say the truth, from all the sides. We (are) near the moment in which everybody understands that we need a way out… The problem is to find a way out which can be acceptable for both without destroying the international law.’ Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, speaking to two Russian pranksters about the war in Ukraine, September 2023.

Ukraine fatigue: the problem

In a recent interview with LBC, interviewer Nick Ferrari asked me about the risk of “Ukraine fatigue”. He referenced the comments by Giorgia Meloni above, and quoted former UK Defence Minister Ben Wallace, who made an eloquent case for maintaining support for Ukraine.

The risk of Ukraine fatigue is, indeed, immense. Wallace was right to underline the importance of maintaining support in the long run. Apart from the horrific suffering caused by the Russian invasion, it is vital for international security to maintain the principle that countries cannot invade their neighbours and take over their territory .

President Putin has passed legislation incorporating into Russia five regions comprising around 22.5% of Ukraine. Those regions – Crimea (4.5% of Ukraine’s total area); Donetsk (4.4%); Kherson (4.7%); Luhansk (4.4%) and Zaporizhzhia (4.5%) cover a total area of around 136,000 square kilometres – a bit bigger than England, or Louisiana.

That’s why the outcome of this war matters to all of us. The principle that countries can’t steal land from each other is fundamental to the post-1945 settlement. Weaken that, and we open a Pandora’s box of future conflicts. That applies whether you live in Europe, in Asia, in Africa or the Americas – as Venezuela’s recent threats to Guyana make clear. We can’t allow Russia to steal land from Ukraine.

President Zelensky has said: “The scariest thing is that part of the world gets used to the war in Ukraine.” That prospect should scare not only Ukrainians, but all of us who want to sleep soundly in our beds at night.

How Ukraine fatigue works

Russia launched its bloody, full-scale invasion in February 2022 (my “Russia-Ukraine war explainer” is at the link). At first, people across the world were horrified. Peaceful, democratic, diverse Ukraine offered no threat whatsoever to Russia. Putin’s violent war of aggression was abhorrent and should be condemned and resisted.

But all people, everywhere, have a short attention span. It is hard to remain concerned about suffering that continues over many years. We saw this after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2014. 14,000 people died in in the following eight years. Yet many outside Ukraine forgot the war was even happening. We saw a “normalisation of atrocities” like Russia’s shooting down of Malaysian Airlines flight MH-17 with 298 passengers and crew.

Over the past few months, as the front lines in the 2022 war have ceased – for now at least – to move rapidly, news organisations have trouble finding new stories to report. Only when something dramatic happens or land is captured or lost does Russia’s war against Ukraine rise up the agenda.

The result is that people lose interest and – literally – forget the fighting and why it matters. Other conflicts and crises fill the headlines. Governments find it harder to persuade their voters that Ukraine is important. We see this most dramatically in the United States, where some politicians see more gain in opposing aid to Ukraine for political reasons and contrariness than in supporting key principles of international law that underpin US security.

Ukraine fatigue suits Vladimir Putin

Ukraine fatigue is what Vladimir Putin, the Russian President, wants. He hopes that, over time, international interest in his war of choice against Ukraine will decline. He hopes that will lead to less international economic and military support for Ukraine. That would make it easier for Russia to prevail.

Even if that outcome led to Russia “only” occupying the five regions of Ukraine it has so far attempted to annex (up to now, Russia has failed to occupy their entire area), it would be a colossal victory for President Putin. He would be able to claim that the slaughter of Ukrainians (and Russians) he launched in 2014, and amplified in 2022, had been “worth it”. Many Russians, fed a ceaseless diet of pro-Putin propaganda and anxious about the war’s outcome, would probably agree.

Worse still, a “frozen conflict” with Russia occupying a large chunk of Ukraine would not create stability. Rather, Putin would be emboldened to attack Ukraine again at a later date. This is what happened after the 2014 war settled down into a stalemate. Russia might feel emboldened to attack other countries, too. Any promise by Moscow not to attack Ukraine again in the future would be meaningless. After all, in 1997 Russia signed international treaties with Ukraine recognising Ukraine’s borders, including Crimea.

What will happen next

I see three possible outcomes:

(i) a long attritional war. This is probably the likeliest outcome. I do not claim to be a military expert. But recent fighting has shown it is hard for either side to make major gains over well-entrenched defenders. This outcome will suit Putin, who hopes that if he hasn’t lost the war by the time of the US elections in November 2024 he may get a government in Washington that is less supportive of Ukraine;

(ii) Russian forces collapse. In late 2022, Ukrainian forces advanced rapidly in the north and south of the country. In June 2023 Putin’s ally, Yevgeny Prigozhin, led a mutiny and a “March on Moscow” that threw into doubt the loyalty of large numbers of Russian troops. The losses suffered by Russian troops since February 2022 – over 150,000 dead and permanently incapacitated – would be the equivalent, in the UK, to the loss of over 70,000 young men (Russia’s population, although in decline, is still just over twice that of the UK).

Prigozhin’s mutiny reflected the internal tensions caused by the costs of war to Russia’s people. Russia is the world’s 11th largest economy, comparable with Italy or Canada. Putin is desperate not to lose the war: its success is existential for his future. He has spent two decades seeking to ensure no-one can overthrow him. But many senior Russians know the war is pointless, and destructive to the long-term future of their countrty and its people. The possibility of a palace coup in the Kremlin can’t be ruled out. It’s a bit like a bridge where you can see the concrete cracking, but can’t see clearly if or when it’s going to fall down.

(iii) collapse on the Ukrainian side. Ukrainian forces have the huge advantage of higher morale than their Russian counterparts. They are defending their country; Russian soldiers would rather be back home. New Ukrainian weapons such as ATACMS missiles make life difficult for the Russians. Ukraine has done well to clear much of the Black Sea of Russian naval vessels. People in Kyiv tell me they see no sign of weakness there. But we shouldn’t take Ukrainian success for granted. Ukraine, too, has suffered heavy losses of armed forces and equipment. The war, and ceaseless Russian attacks against infrastructure, strain the economy. Russian forces may be feebler than many expected, but they are still large. If international support for Ukraine declines, Ukraine will find it harder still to prevail.

Ukraine fatigue: support matters

Many countries, which understand the threat from Russia more than most from bitter experience, have made clear their continued support to Ukraine: step forward the Baltic states, Czechia, Slovakia and Poland. Germany, Norway, Denmark, the UK and countries such as Japan and Canada have also stepped up. When British Foreign Secretary David Cameron visited Ukraine in November 2023, I was pleased to see him say the UK would continue to give Ukraine “above all, the military support that you need, not just this year and next year but for as long as it takes”.

But the further you get away from the front line, the harder it becomes to persuade voters outside the region, as the months tick by, how dangerous Russia’s attack on Ukraine is for their security. That is nowhere truer than in the United States – the most significant source of advanced weapons to Ukraine in absolute terms up to now, but also the country where President Putin has the greatest hopes of a political change in the wind to his advantage.

Against this background, the most important thing is for those countries and people that have supported Ukraine up to now to remain engaged. That means resisting Ukraine fatigue, and continuing to take an interest. It won’t be easy. Plenty of forces, including but not only Russian media campaigns, are keen to tell us that the war in Ukraine is far away and doesn’t matter to us. Don’t fall for it.

What to do next

Most important, continue to support Ukraine against Russia’s attempt to wipe the country off the map. This is the worst war in Europe since 1945, and the most nakedly imperialistic.

Do feel free to browse the rest of this website, including my posts on Russia/Ukraine.

For a masterful and comprehensive discussion of Ukraine fatigue, see this post by my former colleague Ian Bond at the Centre for European Reform. Good stuff.

Finally, if you want to read my books, that’s welcome, too. I discuss the background to the Russia/Ukraine war in my book “Lessons in Diplomacy: Politics, Power and Parties“. Do check it out.

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2 Responses

  1. Throught history we can see that Russia almost always keeps land gained. The largest territorial beneficiary with massive population shifts across Central Europe was Russia in the aftermath of WW2. Russia still holds Karelia, wrenched from Finland and the Kalingrad Exclave, half of former German East Prussia. Through enforced population moves, these ill-gained territories are now almost exclusively populated by Russians, making it “easy” for Russia to justify they are Russian Territories. The same “tactics” were pursued in Ukraine and now in the Eastern Ukraine territories. Also exposed are Moldova with its renegade Russian splinter Republic “Transdinistria”. A former dictator comes to mind who justified invading countries by re-patriating indigenous German population through the “Heim ins Reich” campaign. I also strongly believe that it is a weird coincidence that Hamas attacked Israel now, all Press attention focuses on Gaza and there is hardly any mentioning of Ukraine, as you, Leigh state. We all know that Iran supports Putin in his war and supplies drones. Iran and Russia are engaged in Syria. Perhaps someone ought to put one and one together and see the link, as it plainly plays into Putins hand. (But perhaps I can’t add up….) He is a master of using the weaknesses of Western Democracy to his advantage.

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