Tomorrow, it will be eight months since Russia launched its all-out assault on Ukraine. (Russia initially invaded eight years ago, in 2014.) The Ukrainians are still standing. They are hanging on to their country. Ukraine is still on the map. This is thanks to two things: the will of the Ukrainians to survive and the support of the United States. Without either of those two things — Ukraine would not stand.
Years ago, Charles Krauthammer told me that the survival of Israel depended on two things: the will of the Israelis to survive and the support of the United States. As I have said, I believe the same applies to Ukraine.
• It is important to get to know some individuals among the victims. Otherwise, war is all too abstract. The murdered, the raped, and the maimed are just statistics.
Oleksandra Matviichuk circulated a photo of a young woman. She wrote,
This is Viktoriia. Today she died in Kyiv. Her colleagues write that her body was found in her beloved husband Bohdan’s embrace, their cat was with them in the building attacked with [a] Russian drone. She was pregnant. They had been expecting [a] child.
Oleksandra Matviichuk, you may recall, is the executive director of the Center for Civil Liberties, in Ukraine. This group is one of the three recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize this year. Earlier this month, I interviewed Matviichuk, here.
• Something to reckon with: “22 torture chambers found in liberated Kharkiv Oblast.” (Article here.)
More: “‘It Was Horror’: Ukrainians Share Grim Tales of Russian Occupation.” (Article here.)
There are those who deny that these atrocities, these war crimes, have taken place, and are taking place. It was ever thus: in Nazi Europe, in the Soviet Union, in China, and so on. Stalin had his apologists, Putin has his. This kind of thing seems a constant in human affairs.
David Pryce-Jones once told me that the great utility of the Nuremberg trials — for all their flaws — was that they established a record: a painstaking record, of what the Nazis had done. (Of course, deniers are still with us today, and always will be.)
• Anton Shekhovtsov reported something grim, something of symbolic importance: In occupied Mariupol, Russian forces have removed a memorial to the victims of the Holodomor, also known as the “terror-famine.” This was, as Shekhovtsov says, “the colossal genocidal crime perpetrated by the Soviets against the Ukrainian nation.” Shekhovtsov adds, “Like grandfathers, like grandsons.”
• Something else to know about: “Using Adoptions, Russia Turns Ukrainian Children Into Spoils of War.” (Article here.)
• A news item: “Ukrainian Nuclear Company Says Russia Has Kidnapped Two Officials From Zaporizhzhya Plant.”
• An ominous development (another one):
Russia unleashed a “barrage” of missiles across Ukraine early Saturday morning, Ukrainian officials said — targeting the country’s electrical grid and blacking out large areas — while the Kyiv government increased its calls for Western governments to urgently provide antiaircraft systems as a defense against the airstrikes.
As Ukrainians braced themselves for the high probability of even more attacks — and prepare for what could be a winter without heating, water and electricity in parts of the country — officials said that they had managed to impede the assault in some places, while in others the rockets “completely” destroyed electrical facilities.
Can you imagine? Ukrainians don’t have to — they are living it. (Article here.)
• A helpful report: “What is known about the Iranian-made drones that Russia is using to attack Ukraine.”
At the Dispatch, Charlotte Lawson has written an article headed “The Russia-Iran Axis.” Yes, an evil one.
Interesting, from the Associated Press: “Russia’s Iranian drones complicate Israel’s balancing act.” (Article here.)
Nachman Shai, who is Israel’s minister of diaspora affairs, and who was the spokesman of the Israel Defense Forces, said,
This morning it was reported that Iran is transferring ballistic missiles to Russia. There is no longer any doubt where Israel should stand in this bloody conflict. The time has come for Ukraine to receive military aid as well, just as the USA and NATO countries provide.
• In an interview, Kevin McCarthy, the Republican leader in the U.S. House, warned that a Republican majority in that chamber next year would likely restrict aid to Ukraine. A subsequent report in the Financial Times was headed, “Ukrainian officials ‘shocked’ as Republicans threaten tougher line on aid.” There is interesting information in that report.
Republicans, including McCarthy, are using the phrase “blank check” a lot. “We have to stop writing blank checks to Ukraine,” they say. There are no such checks. The phrase “blank check” is a canard. The question is: Should the United States support the Ukrainians, in their effort to repel the Russians, or not? Is such support in the U.S. interest or not?
Many say no, many say yes, obviously.
I believe that the money we are now spending is a relative pittance compared with what we would have to spend in the event of a Russian victory. I also believe that a Russian victory would tell the Chinese a lot, and the Taiwanese, too. Further, I believe that the main objection to our Ukraine aid is not fiscal at all. (The objectors tend not to be budget hawks.) The objection is to aid to Ukraine, period. If sufficient aid amounted to five cents, the objectors would still object, because of their ideological disposition.
Let me commend an article by Luke Coffey, of the Hudson Institute (late of the Heritage Foundation — as a lot of excellent people are): “Ten Myths about US Aid to Ukraine.”
• The coalition of Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s prime-minister-to-be, is stocked with Putinists. Meloni is on the right, and the Italian Right and Putinism are practically inseparable. The same goes for the European Right in general. And the allies of that Right in the United States and elsewhere.
Well, here is an interesting report, headed “Italy’s Meloni issues warning to Berlusconi over Putin ties.” The lady is quoted as saying, “Italy will never be the weak link of the West with us in government.” Also, “Italy, with its head high, is part of Europe and the Atlantic alliance. Whoever doesn’t agree with this cornerstone cannot be part of the government, at the cost of not having a government.”
Huh. May it prove so.
• A domestic report: “In Ohio, Vance faces backlash in Ukrainian community over war stance.” The article says,
The Ukrainian population of Ohio has traditionally leaned Republican because of the party’s forceful criticism of communism. But that could change this year.
I would think so. Nowhere is the transformation of the Republican Party more stark than in Ohio. The incumbent Republican U.S. senator is Rob Portman, a Reagan-Bush man. He is the co-chairman of the Senate Ukraine Caucus. He is retiring at the end of this session. Nominated by his party to replace him is J.D. Vance — who said on Steve Bannon’s show, “I gotta be honest with you, I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or another.”
• Let me commend an article — another one: “The Words About Ukraine That Americans Need to Hear.” It is by Eliot A. Cohen, and its subheading is, “Wars are won by deeds — but also by persuasive moral arguments.”
• The European Parliament awards a prize called the “Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.” (It is named, of course, after Andrei Sakharov, the great Russian scientist and dissident.) Sometimes the award goes to individuals, sometimes it goes to groups, or even movements. In 2017, the award went to the democratic opposition in Venezuela. In 2020, it went to the democratic opposition in Belarus.
In 2018, it went to Oleh Sentsov, the Ukrainian film director, who was a political prisoner of the Kremlin and is now fighting in his country’s military. (I interviewed him, and wrote about him, last August, here.) In 2019, the Sakharov Prize went to Ilham Tohti, a Uyghur leader, and prisoner. (I interviewed his daughter last May, here.) In 2021, the prize went to Alexei Navalny, the leader of the opposition in Russia, and, of course, a prisoner.
This year’s award has gone to an entire people: the Ukrainian people. The president of the EU parliament, Roberta Metsola, wrote,
They are standing up for what they believe in.
Fighting for our values.
Protecting democracy, freedom & rule of law.
Risking their lives for us. . . .
No one is more deserving.
Congratulations to the brave people of Ukraine!