Trump’s Shameful Betrayal of Ukraine
Today is the third anniversary of the beginning of Russia’s full-blown assault on Ukraine, on February 24, 2022. Sadly, over the last few weeks, the Trump Administration has moved towards abandoning Ukraine to its brutal enemy. Trump has essentially adopted the Kremlin line on the war – blaming Ukraine for Russia’s aggression, and made a series of concessions to Vladimir Putin (foreclosing Ukrainian membership in NATO, letting Russia keep the territory it occupied, etc.), without demanding anything from Russia in return. The Administration has been trying to make a deal under which the US will have rights to much of Ukraine’s mineral resources. But they aren’t offering any security guarantees or continuation of military aid in return. On top of that, as part of a broader assault on legal immigration, Trump has suspended the highly successful Uniting for Ukraine program, under which Americans are able to sponsor Ukrainian refugees to live and work in the US.
This shift is reprehensible on both moral and strategic grounds. Most conservatives back US support for Israel’s war against Hamas, because of the horrific atrocities of the latter. Russian atrocities in Ukraine are comparably awful, and on a much larger scale. Russian forces have brutally massacred civilians, tortured and executed prisoners, and kidnapped thousands of children.
Don’t take my word for it. Take that of the millions of people who voted with their feet seeking to escape oppressive and murderous Russian occupation. When Russia has taken territory, millions flee. When Ukraine is able to regain it, only a handful of collaborators do the same. That should tell us all we need to know about which side is in the right in this war. Volodymyr Zelensky’s government has some serious flaws. But it is a liberal democracy vastly superior to Putin’s increasingly repressive dictatorship.
As regular readers know, I am a native speaker of Russian, a language also known by most Ukrainians. Over the last three years, I have spoken to numerous Ukrainian refugees with a wide range of backgrounds: Christians, Jews, and Muslims; ethnic Ukrainians and members of minority groups (including ethnic Russians); supporters of President Zelensky, and supporters of opposition parties. They differ on many things. But all agree on the horrific brutality of the Russian government, and that Ukrainian rule is far preferable to it. We should listen to these people, not the propaganda emanating from the Kremlin, and now echoed by the White House.
Letting Russia take more territory will predictably result in more atrocities of the kind we have already seen. And the survivors will be subjected to horrific oppression.
The pragmatic case for backing Ukraine is also compelling. Letting Russia win will predictably incentivize further aggression. Moreover, a Russian victory will give a boost to authoritarians wo
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