A Thousand Days

Ukraine was supposed to fall to Russia in a few days. It has now been a thousand days. Ukraine is still standing — still free and independent — but battered. How long can it continue to stand, especially with major changes about to come in Washington?

Here is a report from the Associated Press: “1,000 days of war in Ukraine, distilled in a single 24-hour span of violence and resilience.”

• Day after day, Putin’s forces commit war crimes: targeting civilians, targeting energy infrastructure, as winter comes. “Russian missile strikes on November 18 left at least 21 people dead and more than 100 injured in Ukraine,” RFE/RL tells us. (“RFE/RL” is our combination of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty.)

• Regular atrocities lead to numbness. Shock and outrage wear off and numbness sets in. This numbness ought to be fought. Kim Barker and Brendan Hoffman have produced a report for the New York Times — reporting on a single atrocity, the bombing of a maternity clinic in Kyiv. Here.

I am grateful for the war correspondence from Ukraine over the past years. Many don’t want to hear it. It needs to be said, needs to be reported, regardless.

• The hour is very late, but President Biden has given the “green light” to Ukraine. He has authorized the use of U.S.-supplied weapons to strike certain targets in Russia — missile-launch sites, arsenals. Ukraine now has some ability to stop attacks on civilians before they can be started. This is simple self-defense.

Here was one reaction:

• Inauguration Day will be here very soon. Said the secretary of state, Antony Blinken, “President Biden has committed to making sure that every dollar we have at our disposal will be pushed out the door between now and January 20.” Sounds like a race against time.

• Even before Donald Trump’s reelection, Europe should have been preparing for a “post-American world.” (The same applies to Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and other nations.) If European governments want to save Ukraine, and stop Putin, they need to act boldly.

For The Bulwark, Dalibor Rohac has written a piece called “America First Means Europe Alone.” Here are two sentences:

If Europeans want a free Ukraine to succeed on its journey to the EU, they will have to do the heavy lifting themselves, without strategic guidance or other support from Washington. Indeed, if Tulsi Gabbard becomes director of national intelligence, it might behoove the Europeans to avoid the United States government whenever possible.

I often recall what Viktor Orbán, the Hungarian leader, said in 2017, when Putin came to visit him in Budapest: “We all sense — it’s in the air — that the world is in the process of a substantial realignment.” This realignment may assume shocking definition next year.

• Tulsi Gabbard was once a member of Congress, a Democrat. She had four terms, from 2013 to 2021. She distinguished herself mainly by sympathy for two dictators: Putin and Assad. A team from The Dispatch has the details, here. So does Josh Rogin, for the Washington Post, here.

When Putin launched his all-out assault on Ukraine in 2022, Gabbard said that the United States had failed to acknowledge his “legitimate security concerns.” Later in the year, she left the Democratic Party, saying that it was “under the complete control of an elitist cabal of warmongers.” She joined the Republican Party in 2024, campaigning alongside Trump.

This seems a natural fit. American politics is scrambled.

Gabbard favors pardons for Edward Snowden and Julian Assange. She is a toast of Russia’s state media. She is set to be in the White House come January.

• A headline from the Telegraph: “British defence figures ‘alarmed’ by Trump’s choice of ‘pro-Moscow’ Tulsi Gabbard.” The subheading: “The president-elect’s chosen intelligence chief has repeated Russian propaganda about Ukrainian ‘biolabs’ and backed Russia’s case for war.” The article is here.

If you were a government such as Britain’s, would you share intelligence with the United States?

• A statement by a Democratic congressman from Missouri:

I have had years to get used to the fact that Democrats talk this way and that Republicans mainly do not. Frankly, I am not used to it yet.

• In 2017, I traveled to Sweden to report on that nation’s changing defense posture. The resulting piece was called “Sweden, Jolted Awake.” Russia has concentrated the Swedes’ mind.

The government in Stockholm is now mailing to Swedish homes a brochure on what to do “in case of crisis or war.” (To get the brochure in English, go here.) This is serious business.

• A report from Reuters is headed “Finland dismisses ‘Finlandisation’ model for Ukraine.” The report begins,

Forcing neutrality onto Ukraine will not bring about a peaceful solution to the crisis with Russia, Finland’s foreign minister said on Monday, adding that Moscow could not be trusted to adhere to any agreement it signs.

Obviously.

• Stay in the North for a moment:

Anders Behring Breivik, the jailed mass murderer who killed 77 in Norway’s worst peacetime atrocity, told a court his attacks were “necessary” as he asked for early release on Tuesday . . .

Said Breivik to the court, “I give you the last chance to give the far Right pity.”

The report (Reuters) also tells us,

Breivik wore a dark suit, white shirt and brown tie. Both sides of his head were shaved to form the letter “Z”.

The letter “Z” has been a symbol of support for Russia’s war in Ukraine and Breivik on Tuesday described Russian President Vladimir Putin as “the foremost defender of Europeans globally”.

Uh-huh.

• “NATO’s Rutte calls for more Western support for Ukraine, warns of Russian alliances.” That is a headline from the Associated Press (over this article). Mark Rutte is the secretary-general of NATO. Russia’s allies include North Korea, China, and Iran. A powerful, terroristic, murderous axis. What’s the Free World going to do about it? That is a question, maybe the question, of our time.