Ukraine endures
One year ago, it was easy to support Ukraine, the underdog in a war started by Russia’s unprovoked, unjustified invasion. It was harder to believe Ukraine might actually prevail more than a few days or weeks.
One year later, a war in which the world has a deep stake goes on. The outcome could well decide whether Russian President Vladimir Putin’s imperialistic ambitions are validated or quashed once and for all. For that reason alone, America must stand firm in its commitments, and do all it can to persuade its allies to, as well.
Mr. Putin’s propaganda and crackdown on news organizations, political opponents and anyone else who doesn’t toe the official line may be keeping Russians in the dark, but beyond his reach it’s apparent that what he long tried to minimize as a “special military operation” is going poorly for him.
Western estimates put the number of Russian dead and wounded between 180,000 and 200,000. The
Ukrainian military’s casualties are considered to be about half that, along with 30,000 civilian deaths.
Independent reporting by, among others, The New York Times has found that Russia has been conscripting hundreds of thousands of its citizens for the war, while a private Russian mercenary company, the Wagner Group, has been recruiting tens of thousands of convicts to send to the front, where all these largely untrained arrivals are being sent in human waves to tie up Ukrainian troops and deplete their ammunition.
So it was encouraging that President Joe Biden, in his surprise visit on Monday to Kyiv, announced $500 million in additional military aid for Ukraine, including artillery ammunition, Javelin missiles and howitzers. As both sides prepare for the conflict to re-escalate in the spring, the U.S. and Germany have also committed to sending tanks.
In contrast to such resolve come conflicting messages from Mr. Biden’s Republican adversaries, some calling on him this week not to waver in his support for Ukraine, others criticizing him for going there. Such transparently political sniping can only hearten Mr. Putin, who has carried on a long history of Russian and Soviet attempts to stoke divisions in American society and politics. As we noted a year ago, we’ve come a long way from the post-world War II era when American political leaders could at least agree that “politics stops at the water’s edge” — that when it came to the grave matter of national defense, there was no room for this sort of nonsense.
As we also pointed out a year ago, this is a war that the West cannot afford to lose, even by proxy. Anyone who would entertain the notion that perhaps Mr. Putin should be mollified, that this would be his last act of aggression — not to mention possible war crimes — should recall his 2014 annexation of Crimea. How much more of the former Soviet empire would he seek to reclaim? To surrender more of Ukraine would only encourage him to show us.
One year later, Ukraine endures. And its victory, as vital as ever, seems not so outlandish to imagine if our resolve endures, too.