On this one-year anniversary of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s
invasion of Ukraine
, it is important that the United States reaffirms our support for the sovereignty of democracies.
The U.S. has a clear strategic interest in upholding the principle that free peoples decide for themselves who leads them. This principle matters in
Ukraine
, in
Taiwan
, and everywhere.
It is fortunate that Ukraine has made major advances over the past 12 months. Kyiv has probably gained the strategic initiative. Far from achieving their original objective of securing the capital city in a matter of days, Russian forces are now limited to a narrow ring of southern and eastern Ukraine. Running short on munitions, tanks, armored vehicles, and other supplies, they probably
cannot conduct new major offensives
in the near or medium term. Russian conscripts arrive in Ukraine untrained and lacking adequate equipment. Russian commanders, as ever, resort to futile frontal assaults with many casualties. Russian
morale is low and will fall further
.
This chaos is fostering an increasingly stark division between Russia’s uniformed military and other forces, such as the Wagner Group and Ramzan Kadyrov’s Chechen militia. Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin this week accused Russian military leaders of committing “high treason” by failing to supply his forces. This follows escalating complaints by Prigozhin, Kadyrov, and analysts such as Igor Girkin against Moscow. Such blatant infighting is a bad sign for Putin. It will worsen as Russia fails to make progress on the battlefield and its casualties mount.
Far more motivated, well-equipped, and generally better led, Ukrainian forces are looking toward new offensives. Congress should press the Biden administration
to speed up supplies
of weapons such as tanks and persuade allies to do the same.
But the U.S. support should not be unconditional or appear so. We should be wary, for example, of prompting a Ukrainian ground offensive into Crimea. Because of the historic and emotional value that Russia places on Crimea and its access to the Black Sea, the peninsula is specially valued by Putin. If a Ukrainian attack to liberate Crimea seemed imminent, Putin might escalate even to the use of nuclear weapons.
The U.S. has pledged nearly
$80 billion
in aid to Ukraine, according to the Kiel Institute. Considering Ukraine’s endemic corruption, it is critical to track where our tax revenues go. Congress must ensure that the Biden administration investigates Ukrainian corruption and ensures that President Volodymyr Zelensky holds corrupt officials to account. That means
midranking officials must be charged
as well as senior officials.
Congress must also demand more of the European Union. It is ludicrous that, a year after Putin’s invasion, the U.S. has pledged nearly twice as much to support Ukraine as the entire European Union. Europe consistently fails to pay for its own defense. The U.S. should not tolerate this, given escalating tensions with China. While France has made
welcome pledges
to increase spending, Germany has failed to deliver. Aside from the Baltic States, Poland, and a few others, the EU lets the U.S. carry the weight of Ukraine’s struggle for European territorial integrity.
In discussing the need to defend national sovereignty and democracy, it should be noted that President Joe Biden cares far more about Ukraine’s than he does about America’s. He abandoned our southern border on his first day in office. The two issues are linked only by principle, not by finances. We have the resources to aid Ukraine and secure our own sovereign democracy. Biden just needs the political will to do so. Congress should do all it can to make sure Biden does both.
