Americans must stay strong as commitment to Ukraine is tested

Many of us could not have identified the Ukrainian flag two months ago. Now it flies everywhere in the United States — in front of homes and stores; at construction sites, churches and sports events. We thrill to voices singing the Ukrainian national anthem, even though we don’t understand a word.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is a hero across our political parties, something of a miracle at a time when they agree on little else. But in the coming months, the depth of our commitment to Ukraine will be tested.

While the widespread solidarity with a people under siege is a refreshing break from cynicism and division, it’s easy to fly a flag and swoon over a fluent and courageous leader. It’s harder to stick with a commitment that will entail spending billions of dollars on behalf of a faraway people.

Inevitably, some share of Americans will express sentiments that always arise about engagements abroad, even when no U.S. troops are involved: Why are we sending money to Kyiv and Odesa instead of Kansas City and Omaha?

The question should be taken seriously, and leaders of both parties will have to join in answering it convincingly. Remember how bipartisan support for the Marshall Plan after World War II was critical to its success. We and our allies must keep faith with Ukraine, even if the cost is high. The price of Russian success in subjugating Ukraine would be even higher, not only to Ukrainians but also to democratic countries everywhere. Aggression cannot be rewarded.

It is sobering to realize that success in Ukraine will require bogging down the Russian army in a grinding fight that could last many months — a cross, as one U.S. official said, between World War I and World War II. This would certainly be a well-deserved comeuppance to Vladimir Putin, and it is now the policy of the United States to make Putin pay a very high price for his unconscionable war.

“We want to see Russia weakened to the degree that it can’t do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Monday after he and Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Ukrainian leaders in Kyiv.

The next day in Germany, Austin opened a meeting of defense officials from more than 40 countries allied with Ukraine with a statement that would have been astonishing at the outset of the conflict, given conventional perceptions of Russia’s military power and Ukraine’s relative weakness.

“We’re here to help Ukraine win the fight against Russia’s unjust invasion — and to build up Ukraine’s defenses for tomorrow’s challenges,” Austin said. Especially significant was Germany’s reversal of its earlier refusal to send heavy weapons to Ukraine. Christine Lambrecht, the German defense minister, announced that Berlin would permit the shipment of antiaircraft cannon tanks.

Ukraine will need more than weapons. A senior Biden administration official said that in addition to military aid, Ukraine seeks assistance to finance its government. A nation whose economy has been shattered by war requires help in maintaining the rudiments of public services.

Ukrainian authorities, the official said, estimate that for Ukraine to keep functioning, outside help might have to run as high as $5 billion a month. Military aid could represent a comparable amount.

NATO allies will also have to replace weaponry going to Ukraine from their own stockpiles. Austin spoke Tuesday of what the effort to help Ukraine “will take from our defense industrial bases” and the need to meet “our own requirements and those of our allies and partners.”

The United States will not have to finance all of this alone. European nations are expected to cover roughly a third of the costs, and democratic allies elsewhere another third.

But by any calculation, U.S. expenditures will be large, and this will be a political challenge to those on the left and the right alike.

Progressives are wary of throwing money at the Pentagon. They rightly argue that advocates of high levels of military spending typically turn around and insist on stringency when it comes to domestic needs, especially those of the least advantaged. Conservatives are often wary of foreign aid. And when they back big defense budgets, they never seem willing to increase taxes to pay for what they say we need.

But in this moment of emergency for democracy, we must put aside our disharmony.

The truth is that the United States is wealthy enough to do right by both Kyiv and Kansas City — and standing up for Ukraine now is an investment in a more secure future. The cost of bolstering Ukraine today pales in comparison to the price of allowing Putin’s treacherous adventure to succeed.