Ukraine may eventually be forced to accept a negotiated end to the bloody conflict with Russia as its troop reserves dwindle while the enemy retains an “ability to send more people to the front,” a leading historian has warned.
Journalist Jonathan Dimbleby, who spent three years researching a book about Russia’s success in repelling the Nazis in 1944, said he believes the country’s “ability to throw more people” into a war may eventually force Ukraine to the negotiating table.
Mr Dimbleby said: “I think Ukrainians face a very serious consequence as a result of Russia’s ability to send more people into the country.
‘The West will continue to support kyiv as long as it wants to allocate resources to support it, but the Ukrainians will have the big problem of reducing their resources in terms of men to fight on the front.’
Giving a talk about his new book, Endgame 1944: How Stalin Won The War, Mr Dimbleby said journalists interviewing young people in Ukraine found that while they “hated the Russians for what they had done”, they were “not prepared” to go and fight “to die on the front line in a war that seems unwinnable”.
Journalist Jonathan Dimbleby said he believes Russia’s “ability to throw more people” into a war could eventually force Ukraine to the negotiating table (pictured: Vladimir Putin)
People clear debris from a building of one of Ukraine’s largest children’s hospitals, which was partially destroyed by a Russian missile attack on July 8, 2024 in kyiv, Ukraine.
Mr Dimbleby (pictured) said Russia had shown “enormous arrogance and military incompetence” when it entered the war two years ago but had “learned a lot since then” and appeared “prepared to hold on”.
“I personally think there will have to be some kind of armistice where both sides claim partial victory,” added Dimbleby, speaking at the Buxton Literary Festival in Derbyshire.
He said this would mean “stopping the killing (and) a chance to emerge from there towards something healthier and less dangerous.”
Dimbleby said Russia had shown “enormous arrogance and military incompetence” when it entered the war two years ago but had “learned a lot since then” and appeared “prepared to resist”.
While he believes Vladimir Putin is “as ruthless as Stalin in his efforts to wage war for as long as necessary”, Dimbleby added that he does not believe the Ukraine conflict will escalate to the point where “tactical nuclear weapons” will be used – despite threats from the Russian president – because both sides are “terrified of the consequences”.
He said Putin has been able to exploit Russian national pride, anti-NATO sentiments and hatred of Nazis – using the example of how certain groups in Ukraine admire Stepan Bandera, a Hitler supporter – to whip up public sentiment in favour of his “illegal” war.
Mr Dimbleby said the factors were “very important in understanding how he has been able to do this and there is so little dissent”.