Despite shows of unity, the war’s economic costs weigh on Western leaders.

After days in which the West has sought to present a muscular and united front in the face of Russia’s challenge to the international order, leaders on Thursday were facing a longer-term dilemma: how to maintain public support for a grinding war whose economic costs are stoking exhaustion.

In a sign of the challenges of maintaining pressure on Russia despite fuel price shocks and wider economic pain, President Biden said at the close of the NATO summit in Madrid on Thursday that Americans should be prepared to pay higher gasoline prices for “as long as it takes, so Russia cannot in fact defeat Ukraine and move beyond Ukraine.”

As NATO concluded its annual meeting — in the same week that the Group of 7 industrialized nations held their own gathering in Germany — Western leaders expressed concern about weariness back home. Read more

@nytimes