contributor. also lauren gambino. betsy, i want you to talk me through two things about this piece. one, the u.s. years long effort to beef up military capabilities in ukraine, and, two, this decision to hold back trainers at a crucial moment. it highlights just how incredibly complex the very end of 2021 was for the biden administration. for many, many years, going back famously in the trump administration and even prior to that, the united states government as a policy has sought to invest in ukraine s defensive capabilities. the extent to which the u.s. gives ukraine lethal support. things like those javelin missiles destroying. other airborne threats that ukraine faces. those are things the u.s. has
of years, they ll be sending trainers to the united states. lauren, i want to underscore something that betsy said, the act of not ramping up military capabilities while based on this hope that putin could be diplomatic, french president macron, german chancellor scholz did speak with putin this weekend. based on your reporting, how alive are your hopes for diplomacy between the west and putin? i think the west won t give up hope of diplomacy because they need to see an off-ramp to this because otherwise this could be a years-long war. but, you know, today there was hope of possibly china getting involved and brokering some sort of off-ramp or developing some scenario that could lead to an end game. i think this is all still so speculative, and it would be you know, it would be wrong to suggest that, you know, hopes for diplomacy are very high, especially at this point.
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