In Ukraine, Putin’s forces commit war crimes day after day. The world in general may forget about it, but Ukrainians can’t. Here is a headline from yesterday: “Russian missiles and drones target Kyiv for 5 hours and hit Ukraine’s power grid.” (Article here.) Another report begins, “A Russian-guided aerial bomb hit a five-story nursing home for older people in the northern city of Sumy.”
Putin’s forces attack nursing homes, schools, children’s hospitals — everything and everybody. Yet, some days, I hear more ire over Ukraine’s effort to defend itself than Russia’s effort to conquer Ukraine.
(Much of this ire comes from people who think of themselves as “nationalists,” which is really weird.)
• Putin has allies — the worst regimes in the world: those of China, Iran, North Korea, etc. A report from Wednesday begins, “Russia has established a weapons programme in China to develop and produce long-range attack drones for use in the war against Ukraine.”
• A different headline, from here in America: “Trump says Ukraine is ‘demolished’ and dismisses its defense against Russia’s invasion.” (Article here.)
“Ukraine is gone,” said Donald Trump. “It’s not Ukraine anymore.” A prominent Balt, Marko Mihkelson, said, “I am speechless. Trump does another favor to the Kremlin by saying that Ukraine does not exist.” Mihkelson is the chairman of the foreign-affairs committee in the Estonian parliament.
• Another report is headed, “Trump praises Russia’s military record in argument to stop funding Ukraine’s fight.” That is a typical view: Russia’s victory inevitable; resistance useless.
The report says,
Trump on Tuesday repeated his characterization of Zelensky as “the greatest salesman on earth” for winning U.S. aid to help Ukraine.
“Every time Zelensky comes to the United States, he walks away with $100 billion,” Trump said, erroneously. The U.S. has provided more than $56 billion in security assistance since Russia invaded in 2022, according to the State Department.
“Zelensky,” of course, is Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, and a villain of our populist Right.
• Let me return to a report I previously cited — this one. An excerpt:
Trump laid blame for the conflict on President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, his Democratic rival in November. He said Biden “egged it all on” by pledging to help Ukraine defend itself rather than pushing it to cede territory to Russia.
“Biden and Kamala allowed this to happen by feeding Zelensky money and munitions like no country has ever seen before,” Trump said.
There is much to say about this, but I will focus on one thing in particular: the personalization of America’s aid to Ukraine, the demonization of Ukraine’s president. “Feeding Zelensky money and munitions,” said Trump. Our aid, in truth, has been to the Ukrainian people: to help them save themselves, their country, their freedom, their independence.
All in accordance with our national interest, of course (as many of us see it).
• In late August, Defense News published a highly interesting article, out of Scranton. Its opening paragraph:
A Pennsylvania ammunition plant that makes a key artillery shell in Ukraine’s fight against Russia has managed to boost production by 50% to meet surging demand, with more capacity set to come on line.
• And here is an Associated Press report, from last weekend, also out of Scranton:
Under tight security, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday visited a Pennsylvania ammunition factory to thank the workers who are producing one of the most critically needed munitions for his country’s fight to fend off Russian ground forces.
Americans are obviously divided. But I, personally, am glad that my country is helping these brave people in their struggle to defend themselves against a monstrous invader and keep their country.
And, again, there is the matter of our interest (the foremost consideration). Ukraine’s enemy is our enemy, too — Putin’s Russia and all of its partners: China, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, Hamas, Hezbollah, on and on.
• Here is Pennsylvania’s governor:
We must all do our part in the fight for freedom — from the workers in Scranton who make Pennsylvania the arsenal of democracy to the brave Ukrainian soldiers protecting their country.
We stand with Ukraine in their just defense of their homeland in the face of Russian… pic.twitter.com/5VnYRfQOm5
— Governor Josh Shapiro (@GovernorShapiro) September 23, 2024
And here is Illia Ponomarenko, a leading Ukrainian war correspondent:
And absolutely not a single soul currently losing their shit on “X” over governor Josh Shapiro signing artillery shells in Scranton ever demonstrated similar degrees of righteous anger and virtue signaling as Russia was razing entire Ukrainan cities and regions to the dust — and…
— Illia Ponomarenko 🇺🇦 (@IAPonomarenko) September 24, 2024
• “Zelensky interfered in our election!” many Republicans claim. About this, there are a dozen things to say. One of them is this: When the Hungarian head of state, Viktor Orbán, visited Mar-a-Lago to endorse Trump, I did not hear a peep out of any Republicans — except peeps of satisfaction.
As he has made clear over and over, Zelensky welcomes the support of anyone willing to give it — anyone willing to help Ukraine: Republican, Democrat, German, Briton, or Martian.
• Trump is a “man of peace,” Orbán says. Orbán says it about himself, too, repeatedly. I once wrote a book called “Peace, They Say.” Huge topic. Be careful when people talk about “peace.” When the likes of Trump and Orbán speak about “peace” in Ukraine, they really mean Russian occupation — which is a very, very different thing from peace.
Ukrainians keep trying to impress on the West: “We are not fighting for territories, merely, though those territories are rightfully ours, and aggressive nations should not be allowed to redraw borders. We are fighting for the people in those territories — to spare them the horrors of Russian occupation. Have you not seen what Putin’s forces have done, where they have occupied?”
I hope this is making a dent in the West. Not sure it has.
• VSquare has published an interesting analysis: “Hungarian and CEE ‘Peace’ Movements Serve the Kremlin’s Interests” (just as in the old days, just as in the world I grew up in). That analysis is here. “CEE” stands for “Central and Eastern Europe.”
• In social media, my antagonists often tell me they are “anti-war,” whereas I am not. I assure you: If they were anti-war, they’d be anti-Putin. Putin is the war-maker. It is up to others whether to fight back or submit.
• This is a confusing time, with Democrats (some of them) sounding like Republicans of old, and Republicans (some of them, many of them) sounding like Democrats of old.
Here is Vice President Harris, standing alongside Zelensky yesterday:
Putin could set his sights on Poland, the Baltic States, and other NATO allies. We also know that other would-be aggressors around the world are watching to see what happens in Ukraine. If Putin is allowed to win, they will become emboldened.
And history reminds us, and history is so clear in reminding us, the United States cannot and should not isolate ourselves from the rest of the world. Isolation is not insulation. So then, the United States supports Ukraine, not out of charity, but because it is in our strategic interest.
One might apply the word “realism.”
Harris continued,
President Zelensky, I am clear. Putin started this war, and he could end it tomorrow if he simply withdrew his troops from Ukraine’s sovereign territory. Of course, he has demonstrated no intention of doing that.
Harris then spoke of meeting world leaders at the Ukraine Peace Conference in June and telling them that “nothing about the end of this war can be decided without Ukraine.” She went on to say the following, as she stood beside Zelensky yesterday:
However, in candor, I share with you, Mr. President, there are some in my country who would instead force Ukraine to give up large parts of its sovereign territory, who would demand that Ukraine accept neutrality, and would require Ukraine to forgo security relationships with other nations. These proposals are the same of those of Putin. And let us be clear, they are not proposals for peace.
Instead, they are proposals for surrender, which is dangerous and unacceptable.
(For the vice president’s remarks in full, go here.)
John Bolton once wrote a book called “Surrender Is Not an Option.” Again, ours are confusing times.
• You have heard many an American say, “Pivot to Asia! Forget Ukraine, Russia, and Europe. Asia’s the thing!” Japan’s prime minister, Fumio Kishida, has a different view. He told Josh Rogin of the Washington Post, “Today’s Ukraine could be East Asia tomorrow.” On the question of security, “the Euro-Atlantic and the Indo-Pacific are inseparable.”
• Europe ought to prepare for a post-American future. This is particularly true if the Republican ticket is elected in November. But they, Europe, ought to do it anyway.
Related is this report:
As the war in Ukraine enters a critical period, the European Union has decided that it must take responsibility for what it sees as an existential threat to security in its own neighborhood and is preparing to tackle some of the financial burden, perhaps even without the United States.
• I recommend an article by Arch Puddington (a statement I have been making for decades): this one. One paragraph, one sentence, reads,
The decline of the GOP’s internationalist wing is especially ill-timed given the recent gains for global autocracy, the most significant since the years of Soviet expansionism that followed World War Two.
• I also recommend a column by George F. Will (another statement I have been making for decades): this one. The column is headed “As Putin’s military barbarism continues, U.S. credibility is at stake.”
Will quotes JD Vance as saying that Ukraine does not have an “achievable objective.” Counters Will, “Ukraine’s objective is to thwart Putin’s, which is to erase Ukraine. The logic of Vance’s diagnosis is to stop resisting Putin.”
More from Will — his concluding paragraphs:
Today, U.S. credibility, the coin that purchases deterrence, depends on the success of Ukraine, which does the dying. U.S. “sacrifices” are merely material and negligible as a portion of gross domestic product. They do not noticeably subtract from government’s domestic spending because the government’s incontinent borrowing has long since severed the connection between revenue and outlays.
So, if U.S. “sacrifices” are deemed too excruciating to be justified by the goal of preventing the destruction of the geographically largest nation entirely in Europe, we will have earned from Russia and its friends (China, Iran, North Korea) what makes enemies doubly dangerous: contempt.
If Putin succeeds, historians generations hence might designate Russia’s war against Ukraine — as they did, after World War II, the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) — the “great rehearsal”: a bloody prologue to a blood-soaked aftermath. The politician and novelist John Buchan, Churchill’s contemporary, said: “You think that a wall as solid as the earth separates civilization from barbarism. I tell you the division is a thread, a sheet of glass.” We have been warned, redundantly, by wise leaders and past events, and the sound of cracking glass.