As the war in Ukraine approaches the two-week mark, it is increasingly clear that we are unprepared for many of the challenges that now seem likely—the greatest of which are associated with the ever-growing possibility that this conflict stretches out for many more weeks, months, or perhaps even years.
President Biden’s announcement that the U.S. would ban imports of Russian oil and his advocacy for a $12 billion package of aid for Ukraine, underscored that as the conflict continues on, its impacts will grow, not just for the heroic citizens of Ukraine but for average Americans who might have weeks ago considered the conflict remote and unlikely to touch their daily lives.
As Biden’s remarks illustrated, it is time for Ukraine and its friends in the international community to prepare for a war that will almost certainly become the most costly and destructive in nearly a century—and one that will have profound long-term consequences for geopolitics, the world economy and, above all, for tens of millions of Ukrainians.
