A People Fights Back

Imagine starting out in life, or being in mid-career, or being at any stage at all. You have your plans, your hopes, your expectations, your routine. Your life. And then a neighboring country invades you, for the purpose of annihilating you, and you are at war, fighting for your life and your country’s. That is the situation of the Ukrainians.

Israelis, among others, can sympathize.

When I talked with Illia Ponomarenko, the Ukrainian journalist, last May, he said this (I paraphrase):

Here we are, in the year 2024. We’re supposed to be flying to the moon or operating flying cars. Instead, we are in this weird situation of being in an “old-style” war. Millions of people are mobilized. Soldiers are in the trenches. In the age of Netflix, we are in a war that seems to belong to a different time.

Ukrainians from all walks of life have been fighting and dying. I think it’s important to get to know a few of them — even in death. To know their names and faces. Alexandra Mulkevych, a combat medic, was killed on Wednesday, at 35.

• To Ukraine, many foreign volunteers have traveled. They have done so out of conscience. One of them is Owen John Pomana, a chaplain from New Zealand. RFE/RL has done a video about him, here.

(“RFE/RL,” as you know, is America’s combination of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty. Americans, and others, can be grateful for the work these guys are doing.)

• About the Ukrainian military’s thrust into Kursk, many interesting articles have been written — reports, analyses, opinion columns. Let me link to a column by Boris Johnson, the former prime minister, and foreign secretary, of Britain: here. The heading: “After a week of tactical brilliance, Ukraine could finally end this war.”

There has been a marked difference between the British Right and the American Right on the Ukraine war. By and large, British conservatives are solidly in favor of the Ukrainians and understand the defeat of Putin to be important to us all.

There is an exception on the British right, of course — Nigel Farage and his followers. Their close cousins here in America are Republicans, starting with the presidential ticket: Trump-Vance.

Joseph Roche has written a useful analysis: “What Is Ukraine Hoping to Achieve With Its Kursk Incursion?” And here is Andreas Umland: “Ukraine’s Invasion of Russia Could Bring a Quicker End to the War.”

Finally, here is Adrian Karatnycky: “The Ukrainian Invasion of Russia Is a Game-Changer.”

(I moderated a discussion with Mr. Karatnycky last June. For my write-up of this event — relating it to one 25 years before — go here.)

• Pause for a laugh — contained in the headline over this Washington Post article: “Putin accuses Ukraine of a ‘large-scale provocation’ with its raid in southwestern Russia.” Dictators are known for many things, a sense of irony rare among them.

• This is just an ordinary headline, no big deal: “U.S. announces $125 million military aid package for Ukraine.” (The article is here.) But the ordinary headline prompts some thoughts, at least in me.

Where I live, people blast President Biden for doing too little in support of Ukraine, and they blast him for doing too much, or anything at all. (I tend to agree with the “too little” camp.) Regardless, here is something fundamental: The United States has backed Ukraine in its hour, its years, of desperate need. That goes a long way with some of us. Moreover, we understand such backing to be in the U.S. interest.

Biden blew Afghanistan, hideously (in my view). Whether a reelected Donald Trump would have done the same is beside the point: Biden was in the Oval Office. He was “the man behind the desk,” as Bush 41 used to say.

But I believe Biden will be remembered with appreciation for his stance on Ukraine. Millions of Americans have opposed him hotly for it. They think, and talk, like J. D. Vance. Some of us “old” conservatives say: Biden grasped the importance of Ukraine — of Russia’s assault on Ukraine — while the likes of Vance sneered. In the worst cases, they mouthed Kremlin propaganda.

(In one of his appearances with Steve Bannon, Vance said, “There are people who would cut Social Security, throw our grandparents into poverty. Why? So that one of Zelensky’s ministers can buy a bigger yacht?”)

I know where Biden stands on Ukraine and Putin, and I know where Trump and Vance stand. Where Kamala Harris stands, I really don’t.

When I asked him, “Will Israel survive?,” Charles Krauthammer said it depended on two things: the will of the people to survive and the support of the United States. I believe the same applies to Ukraine. The will of the people has been demonstrated beyond doubt. It is awe-inspiring, some of us find. As for the support of the United States — the next several months will tell a lot.