The United States and Russia have had some form of arms control agreement for over half a century. Last week, Vladimir Putin said he would end that bargain by suspending its participation in New START, the current agreement set to expire in 2026.
“The Biden administration has been weak on this issue of nuclear power,” former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine John Herbst told Up To Date on Tuesday. “They have let Putin intimidate them into not taking the positions that are in fact in America’s interest.”
Herbst served as the Ukraine ambassador from 2003 to 2006 during the Orange Revolution, when Ukrainians took to the streets to protest the corrupt election of Kremlin-backed presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovych.
Herbst will be in Kansas City on Wednesday evening for a conversation about Ukraine at Central Library's Helzberg Auditorium.
The U.S. response to the war in Ukraine is adequate, but not strong, Herbst said.
“What we’re not doing is sending the more advanced weapons that would lead to a major Ukrainian victory this year. And that is a serious mistake of American policy.”
Herbst joined Up to Date to talk about what he thinks the Biden administration needs to do to help Ukraine end the war.
- John Herbst, former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine and Uzbekistan senior director of the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center in Washington, D.C.
Event details: Ukraine Today, 6:00 p.m., Wednesday, March 1 at Central Library, fifth floor, 14 West 10th Street, Kansas City, Missouri 64105
