Ukraine and Us

(Photo by Max Kukurudziak on Unsplash)

Are there any words left to say about Ukraine? The Ukrainians don’t need words, of course: They need weapons. Specifically, anti-aircraft weapons. Ukrainians are being murdered from the sky by Russian forces almost every day.

Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Since that day, I have written about Ukraine more than about any other topic, I think. It is a matter of great urgency and importance.

Some readers have accused me of obsession. (Not all obsessions are wrong or unjustified, of course.) I responded in September 2023 with a little article called “Ukraine: Why the Fuss?” If you are interested, that article is here.

During the 2024 presidential cycle in our country, I had a question, a nagging concern: Could Ukraine survive the reelection of Donald Trump by the American people?

I have frequently cited a statement by Charles Krauthammer, which he made when we were talking about Israel. I had asked him, “Will Israel survive?” Will it be able to overcome, or neutralize, the forces arrayed against it?

Said Krauthammer, “The survival of Israel depends on two things: the will of the people to survive and the support of the United States.”

I have thought, over the last three years, that the same applies to Ukraine. I don’t know. That question is being put to a terrible test.

You have seen the latest news—summarized in this Wall Street Journal headline: “U.S. Halts Key Weapons for Ukraine in New Sign of Weakening Support for Kyiv.” The subheading of that article reads, “Withholding Patriot air-defense missiles comes as Ukraine faces persistent Russian air attacks.”

Many of us were revolted by this news. Disgusted, nauseated. Ashamed, possibly.

I thought that Yaroslav Trofimov made an apt statement. He is the chief foreign-affairs correspondent of the Journal. (In early 2024, I interviewed him and wrote about him, here.) Said Trofimov,

So Zelensky did everything Trump asked him to do, signed away mineral rights, agreed to an unconditional ceasefire, and the U.S. still cut off previously funded weapons supplies, leaving Ukrainian cities defenseless against Russian missile strikes. A lesson to all here.

Yes. A sorrowful, bitter lesson.

Bridget Brink was our ambassador to Ukraine from 2022 until this year. Yesterday, she wrote,

U.S. made air defense systems protected me and my team from Russia’s nightly missile and drone attacks. The Trump Administration's halting shipments of critical defense missiles won’t end Russia’s war, it will result in more civilians and children killed.

Can anyone doubt it?

Then there was Mike Pompeo, a secretary of state in Trump’s first administration, who said,

Ukraine has never asked America to send in the 82nd airborne; they’ve asked for the weapons to defend their homeland and people from Russia attacks.

Letting Russia win this war would be a unmitigated disaster for the American people and our security around the world.

Above, I mentioned an article called “Ukraine: Why the Fuss?” In 2015, I had written another article, called “Hung Up on Israel: An explanation for the sincere.” People had asked, “Why do you write so much about Israel, why is it so important to you?”

There are only a few countries whose very right to exist is challenged: Israel is one. Ukraine is another. Taiwan is another. No one questions Iran’s right to exist, let’s say. Or Russia’s. Or China’s. We may not like the governments of those countries. But no one questions the right of those countries to exist.

Many, many Americans support Israel but not Ukraine. (You can see this in the Trump administration. The Trump administration personifies that attitude.) They are happy to keep Israelis from being killed by Iranian drones. They are not happy, or less happy, to keep Ukrainians from being killed by Iranian drones.

(As you know, Russia is a giddy, blood-soaked user of Shaheds.)

Why this “Israel, yes; Ukraine, no” attitude? The question merits an article of its own, a long and probing one. But we can touch on it here.

A lot of people frankly admire Vladimir Putin. The populist Right, in various countries, has succeeded in demonizing Volodymyr Zelensky. And there is the perception that Ukraine is “woke.”

For example, there have been gay-pride parades in Kyiv. The rainbow flag has been flown.

That’s the thing about a free country: People will hold their parades and fly their flags. (I myself am not too crazy about Trump flags or Confederate flags, but I live in a free country, thank God.)

One thing about Moscow or Tehran: You are unlikely ever to see a gay-pride parade or rainbow flag there. But do you really want to live in a police state?

And I have to chuckle over people who condemn Ukraine as “gay” but are gung-ho for Israel: If they ever went to Tel Aviv, they would fall over.

There is a lot more to say about this subject—Israel and Ukraine—but I will mention just one more thing, before moving on.

Over the past three years, many, many critics of mine have said to me, “If you think Ukraine is so important, why don’t you strap on a rifle and go over there and fight?” I have never heard, “If you think Israel is so important, why don’t you . . .?”

Curious.

Earlier this year, I traveled to Denmark, to report on the new friction between that country and the United States. Why have I changed the subject? I haven’t, really. The Danes I talked to were worried about Greenland, needless to say. They were worried about NATO.

But over and over, they brought up Ukraine. They were appalled at America’s treatment of Ukraine—a Western ally fighting for its life against a rapacious, neo-Soviet Russia.

(For my report from Denmark, go here.)

Yesterday, at The Dispatch, I published an article about Uyghurs—about China’s persecution of that minority, which our State Department says is actual genocide. Why have I changed the subject again? Again, I have not, really.

At the Oslo Freedom Forum, I interviewed Nyrola Elimä, a Uyghur who has long lived in Sweden. (She is now a citizen of that country.) She is an independent researcher and journalist. She devotes her life to informing people about the Uyghurs and their plight. She tries to sound an alarm, to wake the world up.

I had talked with her for about 45 minutes, I suppose—about China and the Uyghurs. Before we left, she brought up something else. This was somewhat surprising to me and moving. Very moving.

Maybe I could paste the relevant paragraphs from my Dispatch piece:

Elimä worries that “the bad guys are winning”—not just in China but everywhere. At some length, she speaks about Ukraine. “Why is the world allowing Putin to slaughter people, day after day? Do we really need to wait until Putin bombs Sweden or the United States? How can we just stand there when war crimes or genocide is being committed?”

On February 24, 2022, Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine. “I will never forget that morning,” says Elimä. “The night before, I went to bed thinking, ‘What will happen to Ukraine tomorrow?’ I thought, ‘He’s going to flee.’” She meant Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky.

When she got up, she looked at Twitter and saw “the Zelensky video,” as she says. On a street in Kyiv, surrounded by close advisers and cabinet members, the president said, “We are here, our soldiers are here, the citizens of our country are here.”

“I cried,” says Elimä. “He was about my age, and look at him! He has the entire nation on his shoulders. Sure, nobody’s perfect. His administration has problems. But this is wartime. He could have fled, as the Afghan president did. But he stayed.”

When she saw the video, says Elimä, “it really inspired me. It made me feel, ‘I am not alone.’ He doesn’t know me. He will never know me. But he inspired so many people, including me.”

Freedom is indivisible, people say. Is it? It is to some. People want their own freedom, of course, and maybe freedom for certain other people. But for everyone?

There is such a thing as solidarity. I heard it expressed by those Danes. I heard it expressed by Nyrola Elimä. Think of all she has to worry about, to agonize over. Her beloved cousin, Mayila Yakufu, has been disappeared into the Chinese gulag. But Nyrola wanted to talk with me, before we parted, about Ukraine.

Whether Ukraine will survive, I don’t know. Whether Ukrainians will keep their country—their freedom, their independence—who can say? The Russians are in alliance with China, Iran, North Korea, and other such actors. The United States has shifted direction.

Mike Pompeo is right, I think: If Ukraine falls, there will be hell to pay for the world beyond. Ukraine is a great moral concern. It is also a matter of hard interest.