The Fate of Ukraine, and Others

“Putin ratchets up military pressure on Ukraine as he expects Western support for Kyiv to dwindle.” That is a headline that ought to sicken Americans — and all friends of freedom. (For the article, go here.)

Ukraine was invaded by a behemoth neighbor, bent on subjugating it again. The Ukrainians are fighting for their nationhood, their independence — their very right to exist. Russian troops are committing mass murder, mass rape, etc., against them. Yet the Ukrainians are still on their feet.

For one thing, they know what awaits them if they submit. They have lived through it before. Many Ukrainians — in Russian hands — are living through it again.

As in our recent past, a dictator is erasing international boundaries through violence — building, or rebuilding, an empire. The idea that Putin would stop at Ukraine, sated, is fanciful.

On social media, my critics tell me, “Why don’t you go over there and fight! Why don’t you send your sons and daughters!” Yet here is a point of helping Ukraine: No American or other NATO troops are involved — and this may not be the case if Putin is allowed to swallow Ukraine as an initial course.

David Pryce-Jones sometimes quotes a French expression: “L’appétit vient en mangeant” — appetite comes from eating.

Of the aid we Americans are spending on Ukraine, 90 percent is spent here in the United States, as we replenish our stockpiles and so on.

Mischa Zelinsky speaks of “the deal of the century.” He is an Australian writer, who has just published a novel about Ukraine: The Sun Will Rise. Our Kathryn Lopez has had a conversation with him. I will paraphrase him, closely:

“What’s on the table here is actually the deal of the century. The Ukrainians are saying, ‘Look, we’ll do the fighting, we’ll do the dying, we’ll absorb these awful punishments from Vladimir Putin’s Russia, this odious regime. We will knock them over for you. All you have to do is give us the weapons.’ That is the deal of the century, and we may never be offered anything like it again.”

• Many politicians are talking as J.D. Vance does:

Of interest is a report from the BBC: “How pro-Russian ‘yacht’ propaganda influenced US debate over Ukraine aid.” The report begins,

A website founded by a former US Marine who now lives in Russia has fuelled a rumour that Volodymyr Zelensky purchased two luxury yachts with American aid money.

Despite the false claim, the disinformation plot was successful. It took off online and was echoed by members of the US Congress making crucial decisions about military spending.

There has always been Kremlin propaganda, and there have always been dupes of it, and mouthpieces for it. When I was young, I read about this problem in virtually every issue of National Review.

• Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, is an object of particular hate and defamation. This is understandable, because he is a symbol of Ukraine’s effort to repel invasion and save itself. A great many people in the comfy and free world are eager to see Ukraine fall to Putin — or have no concern about the Ukrainians’ fate.

Running for office last year, J.D. Vance said, “I gotta be honest with you, I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or another.”

Yesterday, Yaroslav Trofimov, the chief foreign-affairs correspondent of the Wall Street Journal, commented on a cartoon:

• Below is a comment from a Ukrainian — a comment that says a great deal:

• The Kremlin likes to accuse the Ukrainians of being Nazis. So do the Kremlin’s echoers, naturally, in the West. Russian soldiers have developed the practice of carving swastikas into the foreheads of their prisoners. One expression occurs to me: Nazi is as Nazi does.

https://twitter.com/Mylovanov/status/1736869818815627393

Shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion, I wrote a piece called “The End of Illusions.” One of the things I addressed was this business of Nazism. I quoted the Ukrainian foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, eulogizing a victim in the current war:

Borys Romanchenko, 96, survived four Nazi concentration camps: Buchenwald, Peenemünde, Mittelbau-Dora, Bergen-Belsen. He lived his quiet life in Kharkiv until recently. Last Friday a Russian bomb hit his house and killed him. Unspeakable crime. Survived Hitler, murdered by Putin.

I also quoted Radek Sikorski, who was Poland’s foreign minister from 2007 to 2014. Earlier in his career, he had been a foreign correspondent for National Review. Today, he is once more his country’s foreign minister (much to the distress of leftists and rightists, who think in similar ways).

In a conversation with me, Sikorski recalled a sulfurous slogan: “Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer” — one people, one realm, one leader. Sikorski asked: Whose vision and behavior does that fit? Putin’s or Zelensky’s?

Think, too, of the atrocities at Bucha, Mariupol, and elsewhere. Remind you of anyone, or anything?

• Some good news (as supporters of Ukraine see it): “Japan to Send U.S. Patriot Missiles, Creating Deeper Pool for Ukraine Air Defenses.” For that story, in the Wall Street Journal, go here.

• A report from the Associated Press is headed, “The war took away their limbs. Now bionic prostheses empower wounded Ukrainian soldiers.” This report begins,

When Alexis Cholas lost his right arm as a volunteer combat medic near the front lines in eastern Ukraine, his civilian career as a surgeon was over. But thanks to a new bionic arm, he was able to continue working in health care and is now a rehab specialist helping other amputees.

The 26-year-old is delighted with his sleek black robotic arm — he described it as “love at first sight” — and realizes how lucky he was to get one.

“There are fewer (bionic) arms available than lost ones,” Cholas said.

I admire these people — their bravery, their spirit — no end.

• For the Financial Times, Simon Kuper has written a smart and mind-concentrating piece: “What if Russia wins?” He lists a number of possibilities, or probabilities — all disastrous. At the end of his piece, he writes, “Ditching Ukraine would be a choice. There is an alternative.” There is, yes: not to.

• In America, opponents of Ukraine are very loud. (Or maybe it’s just that I am exposed to them in disproportionate amounts.) Yet there are supporters and well-wishers, too:

• Finally, I would ask: Remember the Russians who dare to speak up against Putin and his war on Ukraine — and his war on independent-minded Russians themselves. Here is a pertinent article from Forbes: “Human Rights Defenders In Russia Under Constant Threat.” And here is a report from Radio Free Europe / Radio Free Liberty: “Russia Adds Two Of Navalny’s Self-Exiled Associates To Its Wanted List.” Those “associates” are Maria Pevchikh and Dmitry Nizovtsev. The former, I have met and talked with. These people are incredibly — incredibly — brave. They have risked everything to deliver, and stand for, the simple and important truth. I couldn’t admire them more.