Western leaders pledge support for Ukraine at Munich security conference

As the Russian invasion approaches its second year with no end in sight, supporters of Ukraine have faced lingering questions during the Munich Security Conference as to how long their resolution will last.< /p>

MUNICH — Nearly a year after the start of the brutal and costly war in Ukraine, leaders Westerners have pledged to remain steadfast in their support for Kiev despite worries about whether their unity can survive what the French president called "a protracted conflict".

As dozens of leaders gathered in Germany, Ukraine's president opened the annual Munich security conference by warning against "fatigue" and stressing that speed is essential if his country is to fend off a new Russian attack.

"We must hurry her,” President Volodymyr Zelensky implored the attendees. He compared his country's fight against Russia to the biblical battle of David against Goliath, saying Western weapons would be the key to defeating "the Russian Goliath".

He said that's why arms deliveries must be accelerated. "Delay has always been, and still is, a mistake," he said.

French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz each spoke speeches promising that the West would not lose patience, even as debate grows over the scale of the war effort, its cost and the economic damage it has caused around the world.

< figure class="img-sz-medium css-d754w4 e1g7ppur0" aria- label="media" role="group">ImagePresident Emmanuel Macron of France, President Andrzej Duda of Poland and Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany at the Munich Security Conference.Credit...Odd Andersen/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images< /figure>

American and European officials have boasted in recent months of their unity in the face of to Russia, which thwarted many predictions, including in Moscow, of infighting and surrender. But the war is expected to last at least another year and this unity will be tested. Few expect a sudden breakthrough on either side, and the cost of maintaining Ukraine's fight against a larger enemy is also expected to create new tensions among the allies.

Throughout the day, the leaders did their best to brush off any suggestion of impatience or disunity. Prior to his address, Mr. Scholz told an interviewer, CNN's Christiane Amanpour, that "it's really not a very good idea" to "discuss the question of when, in what month, the war will end". .

"The really important decision that we should all make together is to say that we are ready to do this for as long as necessary and that we will do our best", he added.

Unlike Mr. Scholz, however, Mr. Macron hinted at the prospect of an eventual negotiated settlement to the war.< /p>

While promising that the West is "ready for a protracted conflict" and saying that now is not the time for talks with Russian President Vladimir V. Putin, the French leader has also used words like "dialogue" and "reengagement" to describe possible interaction with Moscow.

ImageUkrainian soldiers at a checkpoint in the Sumy region near the Rus' Asian border on Thursday.Credit...Emile Ducke for The New York Times

But having been criticized in the past for being too accommodating with Moscow,...