![](https://i0.wp.com/www.nationalreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/russia-ukraine-war-021424-2.jpg?fit=789%2C460&ssl=1)
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.nationalreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/russia-ukraine-war-021424-2.jpg?fit=789%2C460&ssl=1)
Last Saturday marked a horrific anniversary. On February 24, 2022, Vladimir Putin launched his all-out assault on Ukraine. Many people expected him to capture Ukraine quickly. But the Ukrainians have resisted. They are still on their feet, trying to hold on to their country, their freedom, their independence. I admire them enormously. They have set an example for the world at large. Ukraine is the primary freedom cause before us today.
Putin has his supporters and sympathizers, all over the world. But the Ukrainians have their friends, too.
• In June 2023, Mike Pence, the former vice president, went to Ukraine. He was running for president. He must have known that going to Ukraine — backing Ukraine, expressing solidarity with Ukraine — would do him no good in the primaries. But he went anyway, which I thought was noble.
On Saturday, he posted this:
Two years ago today, Russia launched an unprovoked, brutal invasion of Ukraine. A few weeks later, we travelled into Ukraine and personally witnessed the flood of women and children fleeing the Russian invasion. This cannot stand. America is the Leader of the Free World and must… https://t.co/q0F1TpxQJ1
— Mike Pence (@Mike_Pence) February 24, 2024
• The British parliament did this. Action is better than symbols. Arms, in this case, are better than symbols. But symbols are meaningful nevertheless.
The Houses of Parliament in London illuminated in Ukraine’s blue-and-yellow national colours tonight as a symbol of solidarity with the Ukrainian people on the second anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion pic.twitter.com/l56B3WkcYn
— Business Ukraine mag (@Biz_Ukraine_Mag) February 24, 2024
• From the British prime minister — and may it be so:
Life will win over death.
Light will win over darkness.
Ukraine will prevail.
Slava Ukraini 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/n0ovz53pEl
— Rishi Sunak (@RishiSunak) February 24, 2024
• Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, actually went to Ukraine, on the second anniversary. Brava, signora.
Italian PM Giorgia Meloni arrives in Kyiv on the 2nd anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion to show soldiery with Ukraine.
🇮🇹🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/p4wIOAebVq
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) February 24, 2024
• A scene in the Czech capital. (These people know something about Russian occupation.)
In Prague, thousands of people joined the rally in support of Ukraine. It felt like at least 1/3 of them were locals. Czech President Petr Pavel was there, too, asked to stand with Ukraine as long as it takes pic.twitter.com/pA0s1Rwc8w
— Iryna Matviyishyn (@IMatviyishyn) February 24, 2024
• Radek Sikorski was Poland’s foreign minister from 2007 to 2014. He is serving in that position again. Earlier in his career, he was a foreign correspondent for National Review. He is a scourge of the progressive Left and the populist Right in various countries. And he is magnificent, as he was at the United Nations, correcting the Russian ambassador, with his host of lies — lies that can be heard from the lips of many an American, too:
This intervention by @radeksikorski 🇵🇱 in the 🇺🇳 Security Council today will be a classic. Not much left of 🇷🇺 after that. pic.twitter.com/nJJqMg8PwV
— Carl Bildt (@carlbildt) February 24, 2024
• Patrick McHenry is a Republican congressman who is leaving Congress. They speak so freely, these leavers. We need congressmen who are staying to be as free.
Rep. Patrick McHenry says Speaker Johnson should put Ukraine aid package on the floor of the House.
On government funding: "It's time to get on with the deal rather than dither."
Says GOP should have taken Senate border deal.
And adds: 'We need the speaker to be better." pic.twitter.com/7b63XmcTpy
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) February 25, 2024
• Fiona Hill, the Russia expert, worked in the Trump administration (somehow). It is unlikely there will be any such people in the next one (if there is one).
Russian President Putin is emboldened right now and believes he's winning the war in Ukraine because the U.S. has "blinked, because we don't seem to have the courage, either politically or morally right now, to stand up and support Ukraine," Russia expert Fiona Hill says. pic.twitter.com/jsn673B7AU
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) February 25, 2024
• America is dotted with ex-Heritage people. They are needed to correct the current Heritage people — as here:
Because of US aid:
✅Ukraine has taken back half the territory occupied by Russia
✅300,000 Russian troops dead
✅3,000 Russian tanks destroyed
✅Hundreds of Russian planes & helicopters destroyed
✅1/3 of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet gone.
And all without a U.S. solider… https://t.co/FMyzDP3oQG
— Luke Coffey (@LukeDCoffey) February 25, 2024
• I would like to hang a medal around Howard Buffett’s neck. A news story begins,
Howard Buffett, the son of American billionaire Warren Buffett, has promised that his philanthropic foundation will donate $300 million in aid to Ukraine this year.
The Howard G. Buffett Foundation has already donated over $500 million in humanitarian assistance to Ukraine since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion. The combined funds exceed the humanitarian aid contributions of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Canada.
• Of interest, from Julia Davis, the creator of the Russian Media Monitor:
Meanwhile in Russia: head of RT Margarita Simonyan praised Tucker Carlson and RT's covert operations for US Congressional squabbles, leading to Ukraine's ammo shortages. She urged able-bodied Westerners to move to Russia and solve its demographic crisis. https://t.co/6W5EMkYhdJ
— Julia Davis (@JuliaDavisNews) February 26, 2024
Personally, I am favorable. Those admiring of life under Putin should vote with their feet.
• There are people — Americans and other Westerners — who claim that Ukraine has nothing to do with Taiwan. In general, Taiwanese disagree, strongly. Taiwan has a behemoth neighbor, eyeing Taiwan, greedily and resentfully. Ukraine has a behemoth neighbor — which is now trying to destroy and subjugate Ukraine.
A news report begins,
Taiwanese senior officials repeatedly questioned members of a visiting U.S. congressional delegation on what stalled aid to Ukraine means for U.S. commitments to defend the island from potential Chinese aggression.
• In 2017, I traveled to Sweden, to report on its changing defense posture. My piece was called “Sweden, Jolted Awake.” The jolter was Vladimir Putin, and his revanchist Russia. Now Sweden will join NATO. Putin has done this. NATO is vital for the freedom of Europe and freedom beyond.