Why Ukraine can beat Russia, and why that matters to America

One year ago, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed a joint session of Congress. Lawmakers hailed him as a hero defender of democracy against an aggressive Russia, whose leader threatened Europe and the United States.

This week, GOP legislators — displaying no shame and offering no apologies — humiliated Zelensky. He had traveled to Washington to urge Republicans to pass a vital military aid package for his country. They stiffed him.

The same Republicans who cheered Zelensky last December are now fast-walking the U.S. toward the greatest (self-inflicted) military debacle of the post-World War II era. They are ready to hand Vladimir Putin a victory. They are also ready to abandon brave Ukrainians in the middle of battle as they fight to prevent Putin from swallowing them into a new Russian empire.

Goodbye, U.S. global leadership. Onward, more military and political challenges to democracies — including ours. Every dictator — from Moscow to Tehran to Pyongyang to Beijing — gets it, even though the GOP doesn’t, or just does not care.

Half the U.S. public, fed fake facts by Republicans, also seems confused about why we must keep supporting Ukraine, and why the aid must not be tied to whether Congress resolves the border issue, as the GOP demands.

It’s past time for President Joe Biden to lay out clearly why Ukraine can still win, and why that matters to Americans. Here are five points that urgently need to be clarified.

The U.S. must ignore defeatist claims that Ukraine has already lost the war because its counteroffensive has stalled. They are simply untrue.

As retired Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, former U.S. commander in Europe, told me, “The first three years of World War II were disaster after disaster until 1942.

“Thank goodness Churchill and FDR didn’t decide to negotiate with Hitler. Instead, Roosevelt explained to Americans what was at stake, dictatorship or democracy. And the U.S. expanded its industrial base.”

In other words, when the endgame is critical, you don’t abandon support for your allies in the middle of the fight.

A major reason the Ukrainian counteroffensive stalled was the slow delivery of key weapons systems by Washington and NATO nations, which gave Russia time to build fearsome defenses, including laying mines five deep in flat battlefields. The West also failed to provide Ukraine with planes, so its troops lacked air cover to advance.

Ukraine has revised its strategy (away from inappropriate Pentagon advice) to stress new technologies, especially drones. It now focuses on firing behind enemy lines to destroy Russian headquarters and depots and has had amazing success using homemade sea drones to push back Russian ships in the Black Sea.

But for the new strategy to prosper it needs F-16s, as well as the longest range ATACMS missiles that carry powerful single warheads up to 180 miles. The Pentagon argument that we can’t spare these ATACMS is untrue, as we are exporting hundreds of them.

With continued aid and the right weapons systems Ukraine could still score a breakthrough next year.

Americans must also ignore the ignorant calls from the likes of U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (and others who should know better) for Ukraine to negotiate now. They disregard reality and feed Putin’s dreams of victory.

Russians have already started to celebrate their potential triumph when U.S. aid stops. Putin made clear at a news conference this week that the war will continue until Russia achieves its aims.

According to Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, “peace” requires an end to Western military support, acceptance of Russia’s permanent occupation of at least 20% of Ukraine, demilitarization of the country, and “de-Nazification” (which means overthrow of the Ukrainian government and imposition of Russian stooges).

Putin has made publicly clear he wants the total subjugation of Ukraine.

If you want to hear what Putin and state-controlled media are saying, now that they think the GOP and a future Donald Trump presidency will finalize their victory, follow Julia Davis on X (formerly Twitter). The Daily Beast columnist collects video of Russia’s leading talk show hosts.

Currently, they are gloating about how the GOP’s aid cut is undermining the faith of America’s allies in U.S. leadership, and how Trump’s actions have helped Russia. They also talk about how de-Nazification means forcing Ukrainians to recognize they are (inferior) Russians or be killed.

Contrary to GOP claims, U.S. aid to Ukraine is not a money pit. The cost of that aid is roughly 3% of the Pentagon budget, yet Ukrainians have gutted much of the current Russian army and its weapons supplies.

And Ukrainian soldiers are doing all the fighting. Meanwhile, two-thirds of the military aid we send to Kyiv goes straight to the Pentagon to finance new weapons systems, while it sends the old stuff (often from unused stockpiles) to Ukraine. Furthermore, Ukraine’s technological innovations are providing valuable lessons to our own military.

As for the canard that the Europeans don’t do their share, they are sending more economic and military aid to Ukraine than the U.S. is, but they will falter if we do. And they don’t have critical American-made weapons systems that Ukraine needs.

Biden must tell the public why a victory for Ukraine is a victory for the United States, while a win for Putin is a debacle. If Putin triumphs, it will convince allies and enemies that America has abandoned any pretense of global leadership. It would undercut any pretense that we support fellow democracies.

Biden is trying to compromise with the GOP to procure Ukraine aid. But the president also needs to make clear to the American people why that aid is a bargain — from a moral and national security viewpoint.

In his news conference with Zelensky on Tuesday, Biden used the word win for the first time when referring to the Ukraine endgame. It is past time for him to proclaim victory as the U.S. goal, and act accordingly — including finding a way around the GOP’s blindness if the party bows to Putin.

Ukrainians are shedding their blood for the values America used to hold dear before one of our major parties chose to embrace dictators. Shame on us and shame on our country if we abandon them now.