Russia is already a loser in its war against Ukraine, Ben Shapiro said Friday, but the U.S. could end up one as well if it keeps pumping billions into the tattered nation with no end in sight.
Shapiro spoke on his popular podcast and radio show, prompted by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s latest plea to the West for more funds. The problem, Shapiro said, is that Ukraine’s economy has been virtually shut down by the war even as its infrastructure has been decimated.
“Russia blew a hole in the center of their economy,” Shapiro said.
Zelensky said his country needs $38 billion to make up the Ukrainian government’s deficit and another $17 billion to rebuild schools, hospitals, transportation, and energy infrastructure. The plea was directed at the West, and the U.S. has already sent well over $54 billion in various types of aid to Ukraine, according to The New York Times.
White House says it has "ruled out the idea of pushing or even nudging Ukraine to the negotiating table" and when the war ends is "up to Kyiv."@benshapiro: "Well, is it up to Kyiv considering that we're the ones who are footing the bill for this war effort?" pic.twitter.com/0v5SEyzGZU
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) October 12, 2022
Shapiro noted that Niall Ferguson, of Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, said helping Ukraine win means funding its government as well as its military effort.
“ … to win this war, Ukraine cannot afford to lose economic stability,” Ferguson wrote Thursday for Bloomberg News. “If the US and EU want to see a Ukrainian victory, they must step up their support immediately to reduce the Kyiv government’s budget deficit and help the central bank avoid runaway inflation.”
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With no definition of victory and seemingly no off-ramp to a peace deal, the war in Ukraine will only get costlier for American taxpayers, Shapiro warned. Ukraine is unwilling to concede any territory, including Crimea, in order to bring the war to an end.
“If you’re Ukraine, I understand why you’re saying, ‘We’re not giving up while we’re winning,’” Shapiro said. “I get it. I do. But if you’re the West, you achieved your goals here. Russia has been stymied in Ukraine. Their end goal of deposing the Ukrainian government and putting in a puppet government that is going to be loyal to Russia has been prevented and it hasn’t happened.”
With Russia stopped short of achieving its objectives and exposed as not posing a legitimate military threat to the U.S. or NATO, the Biden administration has to think hard about committing to funding Ukraine’s economy and its war effort with no end in sight.
“These are all big wins for the U.S., but they’ve already been achieved,” Shapiro said. “So the question is, where are you going from here? Do you really want to spend another $55 billion on Ukraine’s budget?
“That’s just what they need right now,” he continued. “You keep this thing going [and it will] be hundreds of billions of dollars for Ukraine’s budget and the United States will end up paying, I assume, a very a huge bulk of that.”