Our policy on Ukraine is the same as Putin’s.
This morning, we received word that Ukraine lost access to its satellite internet service provided by SpaceX and the U.S. military. That sudden loss of interconnection has already cost Ukrainian lives, and it will surely cost some more.
The New York Times reports on the carnage we have helped enable:
Ukraine said that its military, with no warning, had lost access to a military version of Starlink, a pillar of its battlefield communications. Kyiv relies on the satellite internet network, known as Starshield, which is paid for by the Pentagon. That led Ukrainian officials and analysts to surmise that the restrictions had come from Washington, as President Trump is locked in his latest feud with Ukraine’s leadership.
At the same time, Russia unleashed dozens of ballistic missiles in a broad attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure early Wednesday, cutting power to 600,000 people in the capital, Kyiv. It was a dark omen for a rapidly approaching winter in which Russia is gearing up to try to push Ukraine to the breaking point as Kyiv runs low on lifesaving air defenses.
The Trump administration is also threatening openly to cut off vital arms and intelligence to Ukraine. When it actually did so last year after that shameful performance in the Oval Office, Ukraine was forced to retreat from the part of the Kursk Oblast in Russia it had seized earlier in the war.
We may not be murdering innocent Ukrainians or destroying their desperately needed infrastructure ourselves, but we are actively making it easier for Russia to do so. We are helping Russia achieve its evil war aims.
What is all this for? Apparently, we want Ukraine to stop striking Russian diesel facilities, which directly fund Putin’s war machine against the Ukrainian people. We want Ukraine to stop defending itself.
The administration’s apologists will say that we are not on Russia’s side because we are not actively helping it take territory. But that hasn’t been Russia’s strategy for years. A ubiquity of armed drones at the war’s front, known as the “kill zone,” has frozen advances by either side. The dividing line has hardly budged since late 2022. There will be no triumphant conquest, as Putin originally envisioned when he told Russian invaders to pack their parade uniforms, and he knows it.
Instead, Putin’s policy now has been to relentlessly pressure Ukraine into capitulating, into surrendering its resistance to the assault on its sovereignty and its citizens. He seeks for Ukraine to lay down its arms unilaterally, so that the war may come to a quick and decisive end — even if no further territory changes hands. Absent victories on the battlefield, Russia would simply win by pounding Ukraine into submission.
Tell me, how is that different from our current policy toward Ukraine?