U.S. backing crucial to contain Putin

Friday will mark one year since Russia invaded Ukraine, and the war grinds on with no end in sight. Many expected Ukraine to fall in days or weeks, but the nation’s patriotism and fighting spirit, combined with wide international support and billions in foreign aid, shattered Moscow’s hopes for a quick, low-cost victory.

Instead, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war of choice has become a war of attrition and survival that rages under constant threat of escalation.

The full costs and impacts will take years to comprehend, but each death, destroyed community and dollar spent offers a bleak reminder that, at its core, war is about killing and humanity’s indifference to one another. The longterm effects of this war will echo for generations.

The world must continue to push for negotiation and peace while also supporting Ukraine and holding Russia accountable for its aggression and war crimes. But that peace requires Russia to exit Ukraine and honor its sovereignty.

It’s difficult to fully grasp the scale of tragedy in Ukraine — but we know it’s massive.

Some estimate the conflict has killed or wounded 30,000 civilians, 100,000 Ukrainian troops and nearly 200,000 Russian soldiers. Both sides dispute these numbers.

For perspective, the U.S. war dead from Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf War, Iraq and Afghanistan combined totals about 102,000.

More than 8 million Ukrainian refugees have fled to other countries, and another 5.3 million have been displaced within Ukraine.

Millions in Ukraine are dealing with hunger, a lack of clean water, power outages and winter weather on top of Russian missiles, drones, bombs, bullets and artillery.

Throughout the war, Russians have committed countless human rights violations and war crimes, including executions, torture, rape, beatings, kidnapping, indiscriminate bombing of civilians, targeting of hospitals and the destruction of infrastructure.

Russians have essentially kidnapped at least 6,000 Ukrainian children, sending them to re-education camps in Crimea and Russia. Some of these children, who still have Ukrainian families, have been “adopted” by Russians.

In addition to brutalizing the people of Ukraine, the Russian government continues to brutalize its own people. It has arrested thousands of anti-war protesters. Some have been tortured. State propaganda says the military has conscripted more than 300,000 and plans to expand further.

Russia’s Wagner mercenary group sent 40,000 convicts to Ukraine. Many were used as what has been called “cannon fodder” in “human wave” attacks with little training or equipment.

With numbers that reflect the populations of cities, even countries, such statistics are hard to fathom. But the images and stories of broken bodies, families and communities drive these truths home.

In “A Farewell to Arms,” Ernest Hemingway wrote, “Abstract words such as glory, honor, courage, or hallow were obscene beside the concrete names of villages, the numbers of roads, the names of rivers, the numbers of regiments and the dates,” and this holds true for Ukraine.

Irpin. Bucha. Izium. Mariupol. Chernihiv. Kharkiv. Chernobyl. Kherson. Zaporizhzhia. The list goes on.

Some physical wounds will heal, but the scars will remain. So, too, will the shadows of trauma that will haunt those touched by the war, as well as their loved ones, their children and their children’s children. Beyond the human toll, the war has damaged nearly 1,600 cultural heritage sites across Ukraine.

Broken cities and infrastructure will take decades to rebuild. In Bakhmut alone, fighting has damaged or destroyed more than 5,400 structures. And for what? Just why did Putin feel compelled to bring this chaos and tragedy into the world?

The economic costs will vex all involved for years. America has provided $68 billion in military, humanitarian and financial support. Other nations have contributed $41.4 billion. With such a large investment, Americans deserve full transparency on how these funds are used and accounted for.

The war is half a world away, and it can be understandably difficult for many people to feel any impact in the outcome in Ukraine when we face so many domestic challenges. Polls have reflected waning American support (although that support is still there), and Ukraine did not receive appropriate emphasis in President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address earlier this month.

But at a moment when democracies around the world are threatened and authoritarian regimes are emboldened, a victory for Ukraine would be a clarion call for freedom in Eastern Europe and would likely serve as a check on China and its posturing toward Taiwan.

As this war enters its second year, the world must redouble its calls for peace — it is peace that is sustaining and nourishing — while helping Ukraine win.

After one year of war, the human toll in Ukraine and Russia — and the destruction — is horrifying

Emilio Morenatti/Associated Press A mother cries over the coffin of her son, a Ukrainian serviceman, during his funeral this month in Lviv, Ukraine. Tens of thousands dead, infrastructure demolished, children taken from their families — and for what?