MAY 2024
Victory in Ukraine Starts
with Addressing Five
Strategic Problems
By Benjamin Jensen and Elizabeth Homan
T
he most recent U.S. national security supplemental package to Ukraine, passed in April
2024, mandates the administration under President Joe Biden produce a stratey for continued
U.S. support of Ukraine against Russian aggression. The stratey must “help Ukraine end the
conict as a democratic, independent, and sovereign country capable of deterring and defending its
territory.” This white paper is intended to support the development of such a stratey by dening ve
key strategic problems: (1) integrating Ukraine into the European economic and transatlantic security
order, (2) degrading Russia’s continued ability to bypass sanctions and access capital, (3) combating
the resilience of Russian disinformation campaigns, (4) rethinking the arsenal of democracy, and (5)
sustaining and strengthening Ukraine’s economy and democracy (Figure 1).
To succeed, the stratey must have bipartisan buy-in and be eectively messaged, both to the
congressional committees of jurisdiction as required by statute and to the American people. Absent
public support, Russia will win. The Russian regime possesses the key advantage of autocracies: the
ability to play the long game, beholden not to the Russian people but rather to its political and military
elites. Russian president Vladimir Putin is emboldened by the prospect of waning public support for
Ukraine’s ght in the West. Rather than treat this as yet another time-consuming reporting requirement
foisted upon overworked ocials by Congress, the administration should seize the opportunity to craft
a stratey that will lay the foundation for continued support for Ukraine for three to ve years.
Long Wars Require Strategic Vision
The optimism that took hold after Ukraine held advancing Russian columns at bay in spring 2023 has
given way to the reality of a longer war. The Russo-Ukrainian war is now longer and bloodier than 90
percent of all interstate wars in the last 200 years. Once attritional struggles cross this threshold, they
