Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says aiding Kiev is not a vital U.S. interest, and dismisses the brutal Russian invasion as a "territorial dispute" with Ukraine. Meantime, former President Donald Trump says if he were reelected, he would negotiate a deal that let Russia take over Russian-speaking parts of Ukraine. (Most Ukrainians speak Russian.)
So, even though the coming months will be critical for Ukrainian efforts to roll back the Russians, the political debate over aid to Ukraine is bound to grow in 2023. Vladimir Putin will try to sway that debate in Russia's favor, with risky machinations like the Russian downing of an unmanned U.S. drone over international Black Sea waters last week.
This is why it is more crucial than ever for President Joe Biden, along with bipartisan leaders who understand the war's broader meaning, to clearly explain to the American people why the outcome of this conflict is so important to the United States.
For starters, labeling this war a "territorial dispute" betrays a stunning indifference to history and facts.
On Feb. 23, 2022, Ukraine was living within its internationally recognized borders, while Russia was illegally occupying Crimea and part of Ukraine's Donbas region, both of which it had seized in 2014.
On Feb. 24, 2022, Russia invaded the whole of Ukraine, and now occupies about 15% of the country.
This war is the consequence of a blatant attack on a peaceful country by an aggressive Russia. It is an attempt to regain a part of the former Soviet empire by eliminating independent Ukraine and annexing it to Russia. This kind of interstate aggression has not happened in Europe since Adolf Hitler began invading neighboring countries, kicking off World War II.
Imagine if Mexico invaded California or Spain seized Florida in order to regain former imperial territories — would DeSantis refer to such aggression as "territorial disputes"?
Moreover, Putin's invasion has goals beyond empire-rebuilding. As Sergiy Kyslytsya, Ukraine's ambassador to the United Nations, told me, "This war is not about territory."
For the United States, Kyslytsya contended, the war is about finally confronting a threat that has been sitting there for 20 years: Putin's resentment of the West and desire to prove that a declining Russia is still a great power, even if force is necessary to recreate Moscow's historic domain.
In 2004, the Kremlin tried to kill democratically elected Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko with dioxin. At the 2005 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Yushchenko told me in an interview how his traitorous chef had poisoned his soup and then fled to Moscow.
In 2008, Putin invaded the country of Georgia, formerly under Soviet rule. In 2014, he first invaded Ukraine.
Having failed to seize all of Ukraine, the Russian leader now seems bent on wrecking the country and waiting for the West to tire of supporting Kiev. Then he would press the West to squeeze Ukraine into accepting a deal that leaves Moscow controlling key parts of the country, while negotiations drag on indefinitely.
This would be the kind of "frozen conflict" that Europe and the Obama administration endorsed after Russia's 2014 invasion. Yet Russia undermined ongoing negotiations to resolve the conflict, kept trying to expand its partial occupation of the Donbas, and organized a new war eight years later.
"Rewarding bad behavior with more land (again) would only lead to more bad behavior," former NATO commander Gen. Philip Breedlove told the Council on Foreign Relations Wednesday. Western permission for Russia to keep key parts of Ukraine would only encourage Russia to regroup and try for the rest later while targeting other European countries.
"The U.S. has forgotten that our security depends on European security," said Breedlove, referring to two past world wars fought to preserve democracy against dictators. "We need to create a world where we don't reward the seizing and holding land of neighboring countries."
Abandoning Ukraine would embolden an angry Putin allied with China (which is watching the Ukraine conflict closely). The Russian leader would believe he could try to dominate Eastern Europe, and undermine the Western alliance. If violence succeeds in Ukraine, he will use the same methods again.
And yes, the Europeans need to do more to arm Ukraine, but few Americans are aware of how much they are doing.
Those who argue in favor of abandoning Ukraine will point to the Russian attack on the MQ-9 Reaper drone on Tuesday as proof that it is too dangerous to provoke Putin. Yet Breedlove argues — and I agree — that "fear of escalation is what Putin wants. It is his most useful tool."
Over and over Putin's propaganda stresses the danger of nuclear war and World War III — even though it has become clear that he won't risk using a tactical nuclear weapon. Right now, he is clearly bluffing. Yet the longer his Ukraine war is allowed to drag on, the greater the risk his tactics could lead to unintended consequences.
One last point: March 20 will be the anniversary of the start of the 2003 Iraq War, which many critics of helping Ukraine say should dissuade us from more aid to Kiev.
I spent months covering the Iraq War over a period of eight years, and it couldn't be more different from the Ukraine war. Iraq was a civil war between religious factions that the Bush administration got sucked into because of delusions about the U.S. military's ability to remake the Middle East.
In Ukraine, unlike Iraq, Ukrainians are doing the fighting, united in the desire to preserve their country's independence against a Russian leader who wants to drag Europe and America back to the worst days of the Cold War.
Also, unlike Iraq, almost all Ukrainians want to be part of the West and are a terrific ally to Europe, NATO, and the United States in standing against future mischief by autocratic Russia and China.
This is the message that the White House and responsible GOP presidential candidates and legislators need to push loudly to the public.
(COMMENT, BELOW)
Trudy Rubin
Philadelphia Inquirer
(TNS)
Previously:
• 03/15/23: Will the White House have the courage to propel a Ukrainian victory this year?
• 02/21/23: On the first anniversary of Putin's invasion, Ukraine fights on for its independence and for the security of the West
• 02/17/23: A former Pakistani leader's death, and his wise peace plan that failed
• 02/09/23: Earthquakes killed nearly 12,000 people this week. Three men are partly to blame
• 01/24/23: As Russia murders civilians in Dnipro, why won't NATO send weapons that could end the war?
• 12/28/22: What Zelensky worried about when he addressed a cheering Congress
• 12/13/22: The US-China conflict to watch is the Chip War --- which centers on Taiwan
• 09/14/22: Ukraine scores sudden breakthrough that should energize Western support
• 09/09/22: Queen Elizabeth's death deprives Britain and the world of a rock of stability
• 09/08/22: After Gorbachev's death, Putin wants the world to know he is the 'anti-Gorbi'
• 08/26/22: 6 months after Russia's war vs. Ukraine began, the West still won't give Kiev the weapons to win
• 08/15/22: Ukraine's civilian volunteers work to give aid and rebuild, even as Russia continues to bomb them
• 08/08/22: A trip near the front lines finds Ukrainian troops ready for a battle that could decide the war
• 06/13/22: The critical battles for Ukraine and for America are being fought right here, right now
• 05/02/22: Save Odesa to save the world from hunger and high food prices
• 05/02/22: Bloodless Ukrainian War, not utopian fantasy says one-time largest foreign investor in Russia
• 04/11/22: The only way to end Putin's war crimes
• 03/28/22: Don't let Putin's nuclear and chemical threats stop us from giving Ukraine what it needs
• 03/24/22: An elegy for Mariupol, where I walked six weeks ago. Now razed by Russian bombs
• 03/18/22: Zelensky's brilliant speech should impel Biden and Congress to protect Ukrainian skies
• 03/11/22: Mariupol's bombed maternity hospital exemplifies why NATO should protect Ukraine's skies
• 03/10/22: No 'no-fly zone'? Then NATO must find another way to protect Ukraine's skies
• 03/07/22: The third World War has already started in Ukraine. Europe and the US should wake up
• 03/04/22:Putin must be stopped from turning Kiev into Aleppo
• 03/02/22:Why is Belarus helping Russia invade Ukraine? An explainer on the latest in the conflict
• 02/25/22: What the UN should finally do about Russia
• 02/24/22: Why Putin's Ukraine aggression will change the world --- an explainer on how we got here
• 02/10/22: Ukrainian civilians train for war with cardboard guns: 'We are scared but we are ready
• 01/13/22:Putin wants to reestablish the Russian empire. Can NATO stop him without war?
• 12/10/21: Can Biden and NATO prevent Putin from invading Ukraine? Summit puts it to the test
• 12/02/21: Boris Johnson stirs up new Irish Troubles for his own personal political gains
• 11/22/21: Xi Jinping thinks America is on the rocks. Is he correct?
• 08/18/21: President Biden, get our Afghan allies on evacuation planes
• 08/18/21:The horror of Afghan women abandoned by Biden's troop pullout
• 08/09/21:China is pushing a big COVID-19 lie that makes a new pandemic harder to prevent
• 05/27/21: Punish Belarus leader for Ryanair hijacking before air piracy becomes dictators' new tool
• 04/14/21: Can Beethoven temper the political tensions between US and China?
• 06/01/20: US must stand with Hong Kong against Beijing's efforts to crush its freedoms
• 05/20/20: COVID-19 offers a chance to halt Iran's hostage diplomacy
• 05/21/14: Newscycle spurs visit to country my family fled
• 04/21/14: Blind to Putin's strategy?
• 12/24/13: Obama's Syrian indifference has led to more death and destruction. Meet some real heroes
• 12/13/13: Where liberals have come to love the military
• 12/09/13: The China strategy
• 11/05/13: Return to Iraq is worth a close look
• 10/01/13: Obama's call to Iran: Who was really on the line?
• 09/11/13: How Obama got Syria so wrong
• 07/24/13: It's time for Obama to tell Putin 'nyet'
• 05/15/13: What Russia gave Kerry on Syria --- very little
Trudy Rubin is a columnist and editorial-board member for the Philadelphia Inquirer.