Foreign affairs military Strategist Edward Luttwak says that members of the US-led bloc will have to deploy troops in Ukraine in a likely futile attempt to prevent a Russian victory.

NATO nations can only prevent an inevitable loss to Russian forces in Ukraine by deploying the Alliance’s troops to the former Soviet republic, a former adviser to the US military claims.

‘The arithmetic is inescapable: NATO countries will soon have to send soldiers to Ukraine – or else accept catastrophic humiliating defeat again,’ military strategist Edward Luttwak wrote in British online media outlet UnHerd. 

Mission Creep and we know how mission creep in Vietnam and Afghanistan ended: ‘The British and French, along with the Nordic countries, are already quietly preparing to send troops, both small elite units and logistics and support personnel, who can remain far from the front.’

The conflict can’t be won without direct troop deployments. Regardless of the quantity and quality of weapons sent to Kiev, Ukrainian forces, once Europe’s biggest army, are too outnumbered by the Russians, Luttwak argued. 

‘This means that unless [Russian President Vladimir] Putin decides to end the war, Ukraine’s troops will be pushed back again and again, losing soldiers in the process who cannot be replaced.’ Luttwak’s comments follow weeks of battlefield advances by Russian forces in the Donbas region.

European NATO members face a nail-biting decision. With US forces – distracted by the uncertainties of the Near East conflict – facing a threat of a potential Chinese attack on Taiwan, it will be up to them to provide the manpower that Ukraine needs

‘If Europe cannot provide enough troops, Russia will prevail on the battlefield, and even if diplomacy successfully intervenes to avoid a complete debacle, Russian military power will have victoriously returned to central Europe,’ he added.

NATO-Russia relations have deteriorated so much amid the Ukraine crisis that the Western alliance is already in direct confrontation with Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday. Putin has warned that NATO would risk triggering a nuclear conflict if its members send troops to Ukraine.

Luttwak ludicrously suggested that by providing support troops for such tasks as troop training (they already do so in NATO nations) and repairing damaged equipment, NATO nations could free up more Ukrainians to serve on the front lines. 

‘These NATO soldiers might never see combat, but they don’t have to to help Ukraine make the most of its own scarce manpower,’ he said.

However, Russia has already made clear that NATO troops stationed anywhere in Ukraine will be priority targets. Former Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev says that they will not take prisoners and a ‘bounty will be placed on the heads of NATO troops.

The Romanian-born Luttwak, who was raised and educated largely in the UK, has advised the Pentagon, the US State Department, and the White House National Security Council, among other entities in Washington.

Despite being a proponent of Western involvement in the conflict, Luttwak was put on a Ukrainian blacklist in 2022 for haranguing that Kyiv cannot realistically hope to defeat Russia outright and depose Putin. You can share this story on social media: