Former Green Beret and GOP Rep. Mike Waltz called on Tuesday for the Biden administration to explicitly begin planning for a long-term, grass-roots resistance in Ukraine to fight off a Russian occupation.
His comments come with the Russian invasion – now in its 27th day – largely stalled and transforming into a slow-moving war of attrition.
Ukraine’s international supporters have been funneling arms and ammunition to the nation’s armed forces, but now President Joe Biden faces calls to back the sort of irregular or guerrilla warfare that could last for years.
‘President Biden owes it to the Ukrainian people to explicitly call for supporting a national Ukrainian resistance,’ Waltz, a former Special Forces officer with multiple tours in Afghanistan, the Middle East and Africa, told DailyMail.com
‘This will raise the cost for Putin enormously and will signal to the Russian regime Ukraine will remain a military quagmire for the foreseeable future.
‘Only when Putin believes that his invasion is unwinnable militarily will he get serious about diplomacy.’
Former Green Beret Mike Waltz said Biden administration support for a national resistance movement in Ukraine would force Vladimir Putin to think again about his invasion
Ukrainian armed forces have largely halted the Russian invasion. But as the conflict becomes a slow moving war of attrition thoughts are turning to organizing a long-term insurgency
Pro-Russian troops in uniforms without insignia are seen atop of a tank during Ukraine-Russia conflict outside the separatist-controlled town of Volnovakha in the Donetsk region
Russian ground forces have been largely at a standstill for weeks, with only limited gains in the south and east. Efforts now appear to be concentrated on capturing the city of Mariupol, though efforts have so-far failed. Ukraine says counter-attacks are underway to the west of Kyiv, potentially threatening Russian advances there
For now, officials publicly say they remain focused on ‘plan A.’ The Ukrainian armed forces have been successful in halting the initial Russian onslaught while the country’s air force and air defense systems have prevented Russia gaining supremacy in Ukrainian airspace.
Meanwhile, Washington and its allies have sent Javelin anti-armor and Stinger anti-aircraft weapons, to ensure Ukraine remains supplied with key systems.
Although reports suggest there is discussion of a ‘plan B’ – including support for Ukrainian government in exile – officials have declined to confirm details publicly.
But Kyiv has already laid the groundwork for building a broader, countrywide resistance movement against Russia.
Last year lawmakers passed the Law on the Fundamentals of National Resistance, codifying the role of the Territorial Defense Forces, a reserve unit, as well as loyal civilian volunteer forces and irregular partisan militias.
When he signed it into law, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said it would prepare the population for any Russian aggression.
Last year Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed the Law on the Fundamentals of National Resistance, paving the way for a volunteer, civilian resistance
The U.S. is sending Soviet-era weapons systems – such as the SA-8 mobile air defense unit to Ukraine. But such specialist systems are for the armed forces, rather than a civilian resistance
The US is also working to get more S-300 air defense systems to Ukraine to protect the skies from the Russian air force which is flying hundreds of sorties every day
‘These laws are directly related to the Special Operations Forces, which receive leverage to build a resistance movement, will be able to replenish their ranks with new specialists and further strengthen their contribution to increasing the defense capabilities of our state,’ he said.
The U.S. already has models for how to work with a local insurgency, such as the way the C.I.A. backed the Mujahideen resistance to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.
British M.I.6 teams trekked into the country to liaise with commanders while Americans delivered weapons, cash and Stinger missiles which were used to great effect against Soviet helicopters.
Soviet forces eventually withdrew after a decade.
Or there are the ‘stay behind’ plans developed during the Cold War, when arms were stashed in secret dumps ready for use if Soviet tanks invaded Western Europe,were
‘It’s classic World War Two stuff,’ a person with knowledge of the work told the BBC recently.
As well as providing the small arms and ammunitions that ordinary citizens could use, it might also involve training camps and instruction in sabotage, espionage and unconventional warfare.
But a veteran of special operations in Afghanistan warned that the conditions would have to be just right for the rest of the world to step in with guns and training.
‘Establishing a resistance movement needs to be indigenous; N.A.T.O. can’t want any resistance movement more than the population, since they’re the ones that are going to pay a heavy price when retribution occurs,’ he said.
‘If and when such a movement has truly taken shape then maybe; a very big maybe since this is a political decision fraught with too many pitfalls to count.’
Russia is unlikely to tolerate a long running supply chain – like the ‘Ho Chi Minh trail’ used by northern Vietnamese forces during the Vietnam war – he said, and N.A.T.O. would need to work out where it could maintain training camps, with the danger that anything outside Ukraine could broaden the conflict.
The veteran said it would be like ‘building the airplane while you’re trying to fly it.’
In a sign of such difficulties, Politico last week reported that Pentagon officials said they wanted to send special operations personnel to Ukraine to provide training on unconventional warfare at the end of last year.
But it never happened amid White House concerns about getting dragged into a possible conflict.
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