Marking One Year of War in Ukraine: State Department Counselor Derek Chollet

February 22, 2023·43 min·3 clips

Chollet says Russia has already suffered a strategic defeat: 200,000 killed or wounded, 95% of ground forces deployed, a decades-long energy partnership with Europe dismantled in a single year.

Derek Chollet returns to Intelligence Matters as counselor of the State Department and one of Secretary Blinken's most senior policy advisors. Michael Morell starts with the day-to-day work: how Chollet takes in intelligence, whether through a briefer, a package, or some other routine. Chollet says he is a loyal, voracious consumer and gets a daily briefing book on an iPad. It is a practical opening, and it keeps the episode close to how decisions actually move through government before the conversation turns to Ukraine. The Ukraine discussion is mostly about timing, training, and keeping a coalition lined up. Chollet says early assistance focused on Russian-made or Soviet-made systems that partners already had and that Ukrainian forces could use quickly. Speed mattered. So did familiarity. Later debates over systems such as M1A1 tanks are different because they require training and have to fit into a broader pipeline. Chollet pushes back on the simple no-then-yes story. In his telling, the process has always been a running judgment call: what is available, what Ukraine needs, what can be trained on, and how allies manage their own politics and security concerns. Coalition management keeps coming back. Chollet says allies and partners make decisions based on their own needs and assessments. The United States coordinates closely and pushes countries to do as much as possible, but each government makes its own call. His one historical comparison is the Persian Gulf War buildup and execution in 1990 and 1991. Ukraine support here comes across less like a weapons checklist and more like a long diplomatic grind under battlefield pressure.

As heard by us

A clear inside-policy account of how Ukraine aid decisions move through intelligence, battlefield need, training demands, and coalition management.

A year into Russia's war in Ukraine, Intelligence Matters gives a useful look at how senior U.S. officials describe the machinery behind Ukraine policy.

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You want the logic behind Ukraine aid.

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