In the war between Ukraine and Russia, which side is the GOP on?

The “party of Putin,” also known as the Republican Party, seems determined to help Vladimir Putin defeat Ukraine.

By boosting the Russian president, the GOP is not only undermining U.S. security and supporting a dangerous adversary, but it is also helping Hamas in its effort to destroy the Israeli state.

You don’t believe me? Consider the following.

The House Republican majority, cowed by its MAGA wing and encouraged by Donald Trump, has rushed to abandon Ukraine. Mike Johnson, the newly installed speaker, ripped up a combined military assistance package for Israel and Ukraine and eliminated aid for Kyiv.

And now, even Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who previously pushed back forcefully against GOP isolationists, seems to have been bulldozed by the extremists. That is dangerous for U.S. security and for Israel, as well.

» READ MORE: Palestinian civilians are suffering at the hands of Israel and Hamas | Trudy Rubin

At first, McConnell tried to fight back against MAGA recklessness.

“Some say our support for Ukraine comes at the expense of more important priorities. But as I’ve said every time I get the chance, this is a false choice,” McConnell said late last month. “If Russia prevails, there’s no question that Putin’s appetite for empire will actually extend into NATO, raising the threat to the U.S. transatlantic alliance and the risk of war for America.”

Too true.

Yet McConnell now appears to have been trapped into tying further Ukraine military aid to fixing the southern border, a process that will take months or years — if it ever happens — leaving Ukraine without the military support it will need this winter and onward.

The GOP might as well tell Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky: “Drop dead.”

What’s so bizarre about this GOP blindness is that Putin has positioned himself as the staunch ally of Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran — all groups that most Republicans rail against. By helping Putin, Republicans are strengthening all three.

A senior Hamas delegation visited Moscow on Oct. 26, as did a top Iranian official. The Kremlin refuses to call Hamas a terrorist group and has not condemned Hamas’ actions on Oct. 7. A stunned Israeli foreign ministry condemned Russia’s hosting of Hamas as a reprehensible step that gives support to terrorism.

Certainly, Hamas thinks Russia is supporting it (as Moscow has done for many years).

“We have a Russian license to produce Kalashnikov [assault rifle] ammunition in Gaza,” Ali Baraka, a senior Hamas official, boasted on Russia Today’s Arabic news channel. “Russia sympathizes with us.

“Russia is happy that America is getting embroiled in the Palestinian war. It eases the pressure on the Russians in Ukraine. One war eases the pressure in another war. So we’re not alone on the battlefield,” he added.

The Israel-Hamas war has also given Putin an opportunity to pose as the champion of the Global South against Western or Israeli policies. Or as Putin describes it, “The ugly neocolonial system of international relations.”

But anyone who buys that nonsense (including some Americans on the progressive left) ignores the grim fact that Putin is the ultimate colonialist, trying to destroy the sovereign state of Ukraine and force it back under the control of a rebuilt Russian empire.

Moreover, the Kremlin critique of Israel’s bombing of Gaza — Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov denounced “indiscriminately using force” against civilians — is nauseatingly hypocritical. Russia deliberately pulverized hospitals and markets in Syria for years, and has deliberately targeted Ukrainian civilians, schools, hospitals, and markets for the past two years.

» READ MORE: Have questions about Ukraine’s war with Russia? Here are some answers. | Trudy Rubin

If this isn’t enough to awaken GOP isolationists to the danger of helping Putin, let us consider that Iran is providing Russia with endless drones to target Ukraine. In return, U.S. intelligence sources suspect (although this is not yet confirmed) that Syria may be providing Iran’s proxy, Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, with Russian-made surface-to-air air defense systems to be used against Israel.

These systems were gifted to Damascus by the Kremlin. Repurposing such a gift to Hezbollah would require a green light from Moscow. It would amount to a Russian thank you to Tehran for its drones.

So let’s sum up the plot of this theater of the absurd: The GOP wants to eliminate aid to Ukraine (or make its passage impossible) even as the temporary congressional budget funding extension expires at the end of November.

At that point, U.S. aid to Ukraine runs out, meaning that Kyiv may be fighting without enough ammunition at a critical junction in its effort to push back Russia. Contrary to many media reports, a stalemate in Ukraine’s efforts is not inevitable, because Ukraine has been making progress in cutting off Russian supply routes to Crimea. The loss of Crimea would gut Putin’s war plan.

If President Joe Biden would only, finally, send the variant of longest-range ATACMS missiles Kyiv most needs (he hasn’t, contrary to a lot of bad news reporting), Ukraine could take out the Kerch bridge that connects Russia to Crimea and make Russia’s hold on the peninsula untenable.

Republicans should not only support the military assistance package for Ukraine but urge Biden to send Ukraine every weapon it needs to win. Instead, to repeat, GOP isolationists are playing into Putin’s hands on Ukraine, while also helping Putin allies Hamas, Hezbollah, and Tehran. Their actions are increasing the threats to Israel and to America.

Which side are you on, boys? Which side are you on?