Year Three Begins

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:

• The British parliament did this. Action is better than symbols. Arms, in this case, are better than symbols. But symbols are meaningful nevertheless.

• From the British prime minister — and may it be so:

• Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, actually went to Ukraine, on the second anniversary. Brava, signora.

• A scene in the Czech capital. (These people know something about Russian occupation.)

• 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:

• 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.

• 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).

• America is dotted with ex-Heritage people. They are needed to correct the current Heritage people — as here:

• 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:

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.