Felipe Dana / Associated Press
A Ukrainian serviceman stands atop a damaged kindergarten following a Russian drone attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, Nov. 25, 2023. Russia launched its most intense drone attack on Ukraine since the beginning of its full-scale invasion on Saturday morning, military officials said.
Thursday, Dec. 28, 2023 | 2 a.m.
Russian President Vladimir Putin must feel pretty confident about the current status of the war in Ukraine to threaten the United States and some of our closest allies, including Japan.
The Russian warlord is receiving stockpiles of munitions from his friends in North Korea, fleets of drones from Iran and is engaging in joint military exercises with China. Simultaneously, an increasing number of Republicans in the House of Representatives have become comfortable with authoritarians and are blocking military and humanitarian aid for Ukraine. As U.S. leadership has waned, so too has the support of our European allies. As if to put a cherry on top for Putin, Donald Trump, who reliably grovels at the feet of all dictators and especially Putin, leads the GOP field for the presidency.
According to White House spokesperson John Kirby, in September alone, North Korea delivered at least 300,000 projectile shells to the Russian military. A Washington Post analysis suggests the number could be even higher, given the uptick in rail activity between North Korea and Russia. But even at the low end, that’s the same number of shells provided by Europe to Ukraine over the past eight months. In other words, North Korea provided the same amount of ammunition but in just an eighth of the time.
Russian forces have fortified their positions in the eastern regions of Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. With limited supplies of ammunition and seemingly infinite delays in the delivery of advanced U.S. weapons including fighter jets, armored vehicles and tanks, Ukraine’s prospects for retaking occupied territory are growing dim.
That’s not to say that the Ukrainians aren’t fighting for every possible victory. Earlier this week, they delivered a major blow to Russia’s Black Sea naval fleet by destroying a Russian landing ship docked in occupied Crimea. The strike highlights that continued support of Ukraine means continued weakening of Putin.
Yet despite the success of the attack, with U.S. support for Ukraine waning and Chinese, Iranian and North Korean support for Russia on the rise, Putin appears to have gained long-term control of thousands of square miles of sovereign Ukrainian territory and natural resources. In the process, Russia has deliberately targeted and killed tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians, destroyed billions of dollars in civilian infrastructure to freeze Ukrainians in the winter and shamefully kidnapped Ukrainian children in order to indoctrinate them with hatred for their homeland.
During his recent year-end press conference, Putin gloated over the West’s lack of resolve in the “special military operation.” He will undoubtedly continue the war until the U.S. presidential elections next fall because he knows that nearly all of Russia’s geopolitical goals will be achieved if Trump becomes president. Those goals go far beyond destruction of Ukraine: They include the collapse of NATO, getting former Eastern bloc countries such as Poland, Lithuania, the Baltic states under Russia’s brutal control, and more.
Earlier this month, both Japan and South Korea scrambled jets in response to Chinese and Russian bombers and fighters conducting joint military exercises near Japanese and South Korean territory. Then, this week, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova threatened “grave consequences” for Japan if it provides Patriot air defense systems to the United States, knowing that they could be redirected to the defense of Ukraine.
Tensions between Russia and Japan were high even before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as Russia massed troops on a chain of islands that was seized from Japan during World War II.
Simultaneously, China has increased the number of ships in the straight of Taiwan and the number of military vehicles, infrastructure and troops deployed on man-made islands in the region that are within striking distance of Taiwan.
In this week alone, Iran vowed to take actions against Israel following an Israeli missile strike that killed an Iranian official in Syria, and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un ordered his military and weapons production facilities to accelerate war preparations.
That’s why it’s essential that the U.S. and our allies in NATO act now to offer wholehearted support for Ukraine that is sufficient to show Putin and other authoritarian leaders that the U.S. will respond to the invasion of our sovereign allies.
This means congressional passage of proposed aid to Ukraine and immediate action by President Joe Biden to seize more than $300 billion in Russian central bank assets that can be put toward the war effort.
By supporting Ukraine and pushing back against Putin’s atrocities, we weaken his military and show the world — including China, Iran and North Korea — that there are consequences for invading a sovereign neighbor. And seeing our allies join us in supporting Ukraine communicates that a community of nations refuses to allow such invasions. All nations have a direct national security reason to join together against the despots seeking to rule the world.
Supporting Ukraine also strengthens America’s defense production capabilities and is a boon to the American economy. The American Enterprise Institute and Center for Strategic and International Studies estimate that over 60% of U.S. aid to Ukraine has been spent in the U.S.
As we have argued in the past, ending our support for Ukraine hinders our ability to protect our national interests, as well as our neighbors, allies and spheres of economic and military interest. We urge the GOP members of the House who are blocking aide and want to cozy up to Putin, to join in this effort to stop a monster.
The U.S. must recommit itself to victory in Ukraine’s war for freedom against Russian aggression. Anything less hurts U.S. interests and further limits our influence on the global stage. As former President Ronald Reagan said when dedicating a memorial to the brave Americans who lost their lives on D-Day, “We’ve learned that isolationism never was and never will be an acceptable response to tyrannical governments with an expansionist intent.”
Those words are as true today as they were when Reagan spoke them.
