Jim Hake
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began in 2014. When I visited the front lines in Donetsk the following year, I met with Alexander Grozdkov, a Ukrainian army commander. He personally had recovered the bodies of more than 600 Ukrainian soldiers killed by Russians. In 2016 I was with Ukrainian soldiers in Chermalyk, another front-line position in the Donbas, a day after Russian artillery had killed two of their comrades.
More than 14,000 people died in the region between 2014 and 2021 thanks to Russian aggression. Moscow agreed to cease-fires in those years, but its fire never ceased. Vladimir Putin was never stopped. He launched a full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022.
Since then I’ve been to Bucha, where locals are trying to overcome the horrors of mass graves and war crimes. In October 2022, I stood with a Ukrainian father in the bombed-out remains of his dining room as he showed me videos of his children playing there before Russia attacked. I spent an afternoon with a Ukrainian medic who requested we not provide ambulances marked with red crosses because that would make them bigger targets. I spoke with Ukrainian students whose village the Russians had occupied in a classroom the Russians had used for “interrogations.” The students told me how snipers had targeted them when they left their homes. Young and old, military and civilian, Ukrainians know Mr. Putin won’t stop unless he is defeated.
My team at Spirit of America, a nonprofit that works alongside U.S. troops and diplomats abroad, contends with Russia’s threats to freedom and democracy every day. We see Russia’s fingerprints on the worst things happening in the world.
In Iraq and Syria, where we help communities fight terrorism, U.S. troops and their partners are under fire from Iranian proxy militias. The thugs in Moscow back the thugs in Tehran. In West Africa, we support U.S. troops in their effort to stop the spread of violence that has surged since Russia backed a series of military coups against democratic leaders. In Taiwan, our team is supporting civil defense and preparedness. Everyone understands that deterring aggression in Taiwan depends on stopping Mr. Putin in Ukraine. Russia supports Hamas’s terrorism against Israel. Its propaganda fuels conflict and erodes support for democracies around the world. Each of these problems will worsen if Russia is victorious in Eastern Europe.
Americans have donated more than $66 million to Spirit of America to help Ukraine’s military with nonlethal assistance such as surveillance drones, secure communications equipment and trauma kits. Razom, another nonprofit, has distributed more than $100 million in food, fuel, medicine and other supplies to Ukraine’s front-line communities. Philanthropist Howard Buffett’s foundation has invested more than $500 million to help Ukraine, including funding for demining agricultural fields and providing food and other essentials for families living in formerly occupied areas.
Ukrainians need Washington to catch up with the American public and provide Kyiv the assistance it needs to win. If our political leaders hand Russia a victory, we will live with the consequences for generations.
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