Second Anniversary of the Russo-Ukrainian War and other Russian Machinations

It has been two years since the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, which came after the Russian Federation had seized part of Ukraine in 2014 and fomenting a secessionist rebellion in eastern Ukraine. Russia is committing aggression, war crimes and genocide against its neighboring former Soviet Republic, despite having recognized Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, in exchange for the removal of Soviet nuclear arms from Ukrainian soil and a compromise over the Soviet Black Sea Fleet. But Russia is led by Vladimir Putin, an ex-Soviet intelligence officer who intends to restore the Soviet Union. The tyrant had invaded another former Soviet Republic, Georgia, in 2008, and keeps troops in a breakaway part of another, Moldova, against its wishes, among various attempts to reconstitute the Soviet Empire. Putin’s aggression is a threat to European allies and trading partners of the United States and to America directly, as his advances bring his conventional and nuclear forces closer, while his aggression would encourage other dictators were it to succeed, thereby undermining the principles of independence and self-determination. In addition to deterring aggression, Ukraine is enhancing American and world security by degrading the capacity of the world’s most powerful rogue state, which is being aided by other rogues, like Iran and North Korea. Even short of invasions, Putin interferes in the politics of other States, including not only former Soviet Republics and satellites, but in Western Europe and America, with propaganda to promote Russian interests and disinformation to create divisions, undermine confidence in the truth and in elections, and to support election outcomes favorable to his interests. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of a North Atlantic Treaty Organization ally, Italy, has observed an intensification of Russian disinformation that seeks not only to portray Russian aggression against Ukraine favorably, but to suggest military aid for Ukraine is futile, even though the Russian economy cannot support the war over the long term, particularly in light of increasingly strict international economic sanctions, according to ANSA, the Italian wire service. ANSA reports that he noted Russian disinformation is intended to influence elections and emphasized NATO as the best defense for liberty and representative government. Russia last week banned Radio Liberty/Radio Free Europe, the U.S. broadcasters of news and information from a pro-freedom and representative government perspective, as the Czar cannot tolerate any domestic dissent. The U.S. last week urged all Americans to leave Russia, even those with dual citizenship, after yet another U.S. citizen was taken into custody in Russia unjustly. In addition to political interference, Putin engages in direct attacks on other States, including cyberattacks, or even physical attacks, such as recently in NATO ally Estonia, a former Soviet Republic, where Russian agents vandalized a Cabinet Minister’s car, a Jewish site and a monument, in addition to poisonings of exiled Russians on foreign soil with radioactive chemicals or nerve gas. The Republican-led U.S. Senate approved more defense aid to Ukraine earlier this month by a more than two-thirds majority, but the Trumpist GOP leadership of the House of Representatives has blocked any vote for aid, even though a similar-sized majority of members support aiding Ukraine for the sake of American security through the deterrence of aggression. The delay by the House is causing a depletion of Ukrainian munitions and battlefield advances by Russia. Ukraine has been able to hold out far longer than the few days that Putin expected because of the tenacity of the Ukrainian people and the unity of the U.S. and its allies in opposing aggression, but the hard-won sacrifices of Ukrainians must not be rendered useless by giving any more ground back to the aggressor.