August 22 was the fifth Ukrainian Independence Day since Putin launched Russia’s full-scale invasion for the purpose of ending Ukraine’s existence. Here are five things all Americans should recognize before accepting that fate for our allies.
Ukraine voted for Independence in 1991
Ukraine enjoyed a brief flicker of independence after World War I, but the country was invaded and conquered by the Soviet Red Army in 1917 and incorporated into the Russian-dominated USSR as the Ukrainian Socialist Republic. The Soviet government made many attempts to wipe out Ukrainian identity, most infamously through the Holodomor of the 1930s, when Stalin engineered a famine in which 3-5 million Ukrainians died of starvation amidst the world’s most productive farmland.
In 1991, the Ukrainian republic
held a referendum in which more than 90% of people voted to leave the Soviet Union, to leave Russia behind, to be rid of the corruption and tyranny. Putin can make up some myth that Ukraine was really part of Russia a thousand years ago, but we should remember our own day of independence, July 4, when Americans asserted the right of self-determination. If we still believe in that right today, we will not stand idle while a lying Russian dictator takes away Ukrainians’ freedom and places them back under the brutal Russian domination they already escaped once upon a time.
In 1994, Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons in exchange for security
The U.S. and Russia were among the signatories of the Budapest Memorandum, in which the new Ukrainian nation agreed to hand over the hundreds of nuclear weapons that had been based on its soil since Soviet days to the new Russian Federation under Boris Yeltsin. In exchange for Ukraine’s denuclearization pledge, both the U.S. and Russia assured Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
When Russia came invading in 2014, the U.S. did not keep that promise, fudging that it had only given a security “assurance,” not a guarantee. Russia flatly broke the agreement by invading, as it breaks all its agreements. All semantics aside, America will strike a sad pose for history if it does nothing more to back up its word while Russia bullies its smaller neighbor.
America has supported Ukraine in the past
At the start of the full-scale invasion, almost all Americans supported the underdog. That was before the introduction of poison that turned us from our own values.
Fox News and Tucker Carlson introduced the idea that Russia was a white Christian nationand maybe we should support Putin. Putin secretly paid many U.S. right-wing influencers, such as Benny Johnson, to promote Russian propaganda. And U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Alabama, frequently parrots Kremlin talking points.
America’s current position is to do nothing. The White House actually lauds our great "friend" Kim Jong Un, who is sending troops and missiles to kill Ukrainians.
Our official policy is to reduce size of the Ukrainian army (which never invaded any country), force new elections on Ukraine (not Russia, where Putin picks his non-threatening opponents in the show elections and murders the rest) and give Russia territory in Donbas it has not been able to take by force since 2014. This would allow Putin to skip over Ukraine’s fortress belt and give him a free run at Kyiv whenever he decides to break the agreement, which he always does.
Ukrainians are under dictatorial rule
Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff (U.S. Special Envoy for Peace and the Middle East, respectively) may view resolution of the conflict as a real estate deal, but the issue is not so glibly transactional to the Ukrainians who voted for freedom, then fought for freedom, only to be handed over to Putin’s dominion.
Think of the Ukrainians left behind the line some negotiator draws. We do not have to imagine because we have seen what has been happening in occupied territories since 2014: mass rape, arbitrary arrest, torture, murder (including 67 clergy), religious persecution, destruction of 740 churches, kidnapping of more than 20,000 children and forced transfer to Russian citizenship (you cannot get a bank account without a Russian passport).
Any Ukrainians who show a sign of fealty to their true identity are prosecuted and imprisoned. That is the example of Darya Kozyreva, sentenced to nearly three years in prison for attaching a quote from a poem written by Ukrainian Taras Shevchenko to his monument in Russia. So why would anyone want to give up their life in free Ukraine to live under Putin’s tyranny?
Here we face a real challenge. Will Americans accept this dictatorial control of thought and conscience?
Our response in Ukraine reflects American values
The final reason Americans should refuse to stay silent about Russia's attempts to end Ukraine's existence is perhaps the most significant: Our treatment of Ukraine is a test of our own values and our own commitment to freedom.
Should we decide to abandon the do-nothing policy and praise of dictators, we aren't just making a decision to save Ukraine from tyranny. We're making a decision to save ourselves.
Birmingham attorney Stephen Humphreys is a four-year volunteer in Ukraine, where he was awarded the Navalny Medal.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Why the fight for Ukraine is a test of American values | Opinion
