House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) will likely bring the Senate-passed Ukraine aid bill to the floor, where it is likely to pass. His previous refusal – yielding to Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump – is a grave abdication of responsibility and is damaging to Ukraine, the United States and the Republican Party.
Two years later, Ukraine is still undefeated. When Russia’s full-scale invasion began on February 24, 2022, Putin’s orders included “killing the executive branch of Ukraine and occupying its parliament,” while Russian security services and the military called for “killing… They were rehearsing the mission of “Capture or Capture.” In 2014, he tracked down those behind Ukraine’s pro-democracy Maidan revolution. The plan envisaged taking control of Ukraine’s state-run heating, electricity, and financial services in order to subjugate the population. Putin expected Ukrainians to submit within days. But that didn’t happen. Despite devastating losses, Ukraine rallied to fight back. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was not killed, the army fought with courage and cunning, air defense forces shot down hundreds of missiles, and Ukraine neutralized a third of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet through the use of unmanned naval drones. It became. Russia occupies just under a fifth of Ukraine’s territory, including Crimea and Donbas, which it captured in 2014.
However, as the hasty withdrawal from Avdiivka demonstrated, Ukraine’s war effort is unstable. Hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers are reported to have been captured or killed in the chaos. Russia massed troops on three sides of the city and then cut off the last exit on the Ukrainian side. The Russian military, outnumbered 7 to 1, sent attack troops one after another into the Ukrainian strongholds. In December, the New York Times quoted a Ukrainian army major fighting there. “We have more people than you have ammunition, bullets, rockets and artillery shells.”
This defeat illustrates Ukraine’s vulnerability. Ukraine is smaller than Russia and dependent on the United States and Europe to keep the war going. If you can’t continue the fight, more Avdiivka will appear, or worse. Only Ukraine can solve serious personnel problems. A platoon leader estimated to Reuters that only 60 to 70 percent of the several thousand soldiers in the brigade at the start of the conflict were still in military service. A new military mobilization bill is being passed by Congress.But the West can Supporting the supply of arms to Ukraine. The pause since the last time U.S. funding dried up created a severe shortage of artillery and ammunition, allowing Ukraine to open fire. Only 1 shot for every 5 Russians ejected.
Putin, who commands Russia’s larger economy and human resources, appears ready to accept catastrophic losses indefinitely. He must find the Johnson-Trump hurdle in Congress encouraging. Mr. Putin imposes totalitarian rule over Russia, so he faces no serious political challenges at home. Russians are unlikely to protest following the harsh treatment of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died a week ago after being sent to a frigid prison high above the Arctic Circle. Ksenia Havana, a 33-year-old Russian-American dual citizen living in Los Angeles who was visiting her parents in Yekaterinburg, was detained on charges of “treason” for donating $51 to a charity in Ukraine two years ago. . A 72-year-old woman has been sentenced to five and a half years in prison for spreading “fake news” about the Russian military in two reposts on social media platform VKontakte.
Ukraine is trying to escape from this type of dictatorship. That desire is democratic. Fortunately, European countries appear to be increasing their awareness of the Russian threat, and while they are helping to fill the huge aid gap left by the United States, they are far from making up for it.
The Republican Party once stood for democratic values against the tyranny of the Soviet Union and Mr. Putin’s Russia, not only to advance freedom, but to build a lasting international partnership in which free peoples can prosper. I’ve defended it. This attitude served the nation well for generations. Now, the Republican Speaker of the House and the Republican presidential front-runner are blocking aid to Ukraine at this critical time.
Mr. Johnson holds not only America’s promise but also Ukraine’s future in his hands. He is able to save both from becoming victims of Russian aggression.