Observers of the ramifications of the Russia Ukraine War cannot fail to see Ukraine’s propensity towards self-destruction, an attitude which I decided to use as title for this editorial. Political analysts vow that Russia is on its way to resolve the conflict on the battlefield, as long the US and its European allies persist in backing their proxy government in Kyiv, led by President Zelensky. The West persists in urging Ukraine to prolong the war rather than sit to the negotiation table, despite the huge losses in territory, troops and equipment. Western stubbornness has allowed the conflict to press on until the last Ukrainian soldier, driven by the illusion that Russia can be broken and ultimately defeated. On the other hand, Russia has firmly stated its conditions for sitting to the negotiation table and putting an end to the war. These include international recognition of Russian sovereignty over Crimea and the four oblasts annexed by Russia, which are populated mainly by a Russian majority. Russia insists on Ukraine’s absolute neutrality in the global order including a formal commitment never to join NATO. Furthermore, Russia underscores the imperativeness of holding democratic elections in Ukraine to replace the ruling regime led by Zelensky, which Moscow considers a terrorist regime aligned with western interests.
The issue of self-destruction was the topic of discussion between Judge Andrew Napolitano and Professor John Mearsheimer, on the Judge’s podcast Judging Freedom on 28 August 2025 in an episode titled Ukraine and Israel destroying themselves. Professor Mearsheimer, 77, is an American political scientist and international relations scholar; he is the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor at University of Chicago.
Prof. Mearsheimer and Judge Napolitano discussed two countries which appeared adamant on self-destruction: Ukraine and Israel. Today I focus on Ukraine; Israel will be the subject of an upcoming editorial. Following are excerpts from the discussion.
Judge Napolitano: The President of the United States this week taunted the Ukrainians for playing defence in the war, and he likened them to an athletic team that only plays defence and doesn’t play offense. What legitimate peaceful service, peaceful purpose is served by such a taunt?
“First of all, he’s just simply wrong… He just doesn’t know the facts. The war started in 2022. In 2022, the Ukrainians launched two major offensives where they captured a huge amount of real estate from the Russians. In 2023, on June 4th of that year, the Ukrainians launched that major offensive against those dug in Russian positions all for the purposes of creating a blitzkrieg and going to the Sea of Azov. That offensive continued on into the fall of 2023. And then in August of 2024, they launched a major offensive into the Kursk region of Russia. This year, they’ve not launched any major offensives in large part because they’re in so much trouble and they’re losing so badly on the battlefield. But of the four years the war has gone on, they have launched major league offensives in three of the years. So this argument that the Ukrainians have been on the defensive the whole time is ludicrous. And by the way, I would add if I had been advising the Ukrainians, I would have remained on the defensive. I think they were remarkably foolish to take the offensive. But what President Trump is trying to do here is to in effect taunt them. And as we all know, that is his modus operandi when dealing with friends and adversaries alike.”
A brief email from Colonel Macgregor [retired Colonel and former advisor to the Secretary of Defence]: Ukrainian channels report an increase in casualties on the front lines. The Ukrainian armed forces lose up to 300 trucks, pickups, motorcycles, minibuses, ATVs, and other logistics vehicles per day. Additionally, up to 40 to 50 units of more expensive armoured vehicles, tanks, armoured cars, and air defence systems per day. All these losses mean that the infantry and drone operators are taking over the war. How much longer can they possibly last?
“It’s hard to put a specific number on it, but it is hard for me to imagine them lasting more than six to nine months… I think everything you read in the newspapers, and this is Western newspapers, tells you that the Ukrainians are suffering badly, that the Russians are moving forward, they’re making penetrations along the line.”
After the coup in 2014 orchestrated by the CIA, the MI6 and the US State Department, why did the Trump administration first time around arm Ukraine to the teeth?
“I think that Trump was badly damaged by the Russia Gate charges. The argument was made by all sorts of people in the media and by the Democrats that he was a Russian agent, and any efforts that he made to show that he was supporting Ukraine and he was opposed to what Putin was doing, worked to sort of alleviate the problem that he had, being accused of being a Russian agent. So I think that’s why he did it. The end result is that he can’t claim that he’s not at all responsible for this war because he helped arm up the Ukrainians to the point where they could stand up and fight in 2022. Very important to understand that the trouble starts in 2014 with the coup on the Maidan, and starting in 2014, we begin to train the Ukrainians, and we begin to arm them with defensive weapons. And then along comes Trump who arms them with offensive weapons, and we continue to train them. And very importantly, we go to great lengths to try to integrate the Ukrainian military into NATO. We run all sorts of major operations where Ukrainian forces operate side by side with NATO forces. This is why when 2022 comes, the Americans are not interested in a diplomatic settlement before the shooting starts. I think the Americans understand that the Ukrainian army is a quite formidable fighting force and will stand up to the Russians.”
What purpose, what peaceful purpose is served by United States intel and military engaging in intel, reconnaissance, and surveillance to help the Ukrainians kill Russian soldiers?
“What’s going on here is that Trump is protecting himself from criticism that will be directed at him when Ukraine finally loses the war… So what he’s doing is taking all sorts of measures that I would say are protective. It’s like the sanctions on India which are really foolish in the extreme… But Trump can say when Ukraine goes under that he employed secondary sanctions because this is effectively secondary sanctions.”
What are the long-term prospects for American world leadership given these disastrous decisions it makes with respect to genocide in Israel and the facilitation of the self-destruction of Ukraine?
“Well, you want to remember that during the unipolar moment, which basically went from 1992 to 2017, we were really in the catbird seat because we were the only great power in the system. And then after 2017, you had two more great powers, China and Russia, and that meant America’s power position in the world had declined. And it was hard for us to claim the mantle of leadership in that multipolar world the way we did in the unipolar world. So we had problems as soon as the structure of the international system went from unipolarity to multiparity. But then we have compounded our problem by pursuing remarkably foolish behaviours. We’ve pushed the Chinese and the Russians together, we’ve turned them into mortal enemies of the United States. We’re now antagonising the Indians in ways that I find incomprehensible. And if you think in terms of BRICS, this means Brazil, India, and Russia are all coming together in ways that are designed to challenge the United States… And by the way, we’re now talking about getting the Europeans to put snapback sanctions on Iran, which is going to drive the Iranians further into the arms of those BRICS countries. Iran of course, is a member of BRICS. So the United States’ diplomacy in places like Iran and places like Gaza and what we’re doing in Ukraine, it’s all having the consequence of isolating us and doing us great damage in terms of our leadership role around the world.”
Watani International
19 September 2025
