The Argument for Adopting a Reagan Strategy in Ukraine

BAKHMUT, UKRAINE – APRIL 17: Ukrainian military members go on the combat mission on April 17, 2023 in Bakhmut, Ukraine. In Bakhmut, both warring parties do not engage in shooting battles with each other, in close contact. Aerial reconnaissance of both sides sees the enemy with the help of drones and directs artillery. The housing stock of the city is destroyed. About 95% of the people in Bakhmut are now military. The military and civilians who remained in the city are mostly in basements, hiding from shelling. It is possible to move around Bakhmut only from shelter to shelter, hiding from surveillance drones that direct fire at places of gathering of people. Russian forces do not fire at clearly defined targets but divides the city into squares and destroys everything inside the square with shelling, thus systematically destroying Bakhmut, moving from one square to another. (Photo by Viktor Fridshon/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)

Posted: September 13th, 2023

By Glenn Corn

Glenn Corn is a former Senior Executive in the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) who worked for 34 years in the U.S. Intelligence, Defense, and Foreign Affairs communities. He spent over 17 years serving overseas and served as the U.S. President’s Senior Representative on Intelligence and Security issues. He is an Adjunct Professor at the Institute of World Politics.

EXPERT PERSPECTIVE — Today, as Western pundits and military experts monitor progress of the Ukrainian counteroffensive against Russia’s occupation forces in Southern Ukraine, many correctly suggest that the U.S. and Ukraine’s other NATO allies need to provide the Ukrainians more weapons systems, and faster, to enable their efforts against the Russians.

There are also debates over the way the Ukrainian Armed Forces are conducting their counteroffensive, with some arguing that the Ukrainians should focus all of their forces against a single objective along the Russian lines, while others say Kyiv should be pressing the Russians along the entire front, forcing them to shift forces to respond to Ukrainian attacks.

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