America’s Interests Are Not Necessarily the Same as Ukraine’s

Friday marked the one-year anniversary of Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. A two-year anniversary is highly likely, and a stalemate much longer than that is entirely foreseeable.

Russia’s way of war is, as ever, barbaric: Its supply of missiles to bombard civilians and civil infrastructure is bottomless, but its third-rate armed forces, which have never traveled well, spend much of their time in retreat, and have — according to U.S. intelligence estimates — sustained a mind-boggling 100,000 casualties (killed and wounded). The Ukrainians have fought with valor befitting people defending their homeland against a ruthless aggressor. It is their misfortune, however, that this aggressor is their covetous neighbor, whom they may be able to frustrate and bleed, but whom they can neither decisively defeat nor dissuade from a revanchist sense of entitlement to territory that is rightfully Ukraine’s.

About the Author

Andrew C. McCarthy

Andrew C. McCarthy is a senior fellow at National Review Institute, an NR contributing editor, and author of Ball of Collusion: The Plot to Rig an Election and Destroy a Presidency.

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Friday marked the one-year anniversary of Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. A two-year anniversary is highly likely, and a stalemate much longer than that is entirely foreseeable.

Russia’s way of war is, as ever, barbaric: Its supply of missiles to bombard civilians and civil infrastructure is bottomless, but its third-rate armed forces, which have never traveled well, spend much of their time in retreat, and have — according to U.S. intelligence estimates — sustained a mind-boggling 100,000 casualties (killed and wounded). The Ukrainians have fought with valor befitting people defending their homeland against a ruthless aggressor. It is their misfortune, however, that this aggressor is their covetous neighbor, whom they may be able to frustrate and bleed, but whom they can neither decisively defeat nor dissuade from a revanchist sense of entitlement to territory that is rightfully Ukraine’s.

About the Author

Andrew C. McCarthy

Andrew C. McCarthy is a senior fellow at National Review Institute, an NR contributing editor, and author of Ball of Collusion: The Plot to Rig an Election and Destroy a Presidency.