![]() ![]() In addition to unleashing untold suffering on Ukraine, Putin has brought conflict to our NATO allies’ doorsteps, and generated fear of nuclear attacks with his belligerent rhetoric. ![]() ![]() Through our assistance, we are supporting the Ukrainian people by giving them the tools they need to bring the war to an end on Ukrainian terms, without putting American lives at risk. The Ukrainian people have also been the subject of horrific war crimes in this Russian war of choice, with deliberate Russian bombing of civilians, rape and murder, and the forced separation and deportation of Ukrainian children. The Ukrainian people are fighting Russian aggression at great cost as of April 2023, the UN estimates at least 23,015 civilian casualties across Ukraine since Russia’s all-out invasion, including 8,574 killed, and nearly 8.2 million refugees from Ukraine displaced across Europe. Russia’s attack on Ukraine is one of the greatest threats to liberal democracy in recent history. But the Ukrainian people have been called on to risk their very lives, and the question is now raised for us - should we continue to support them in doing so? In the United States, where our own democracy has been under a different kind of assault, we have another responsibility - to resist our own creeping authoritarianism, to continue the struggle for voting rights and equal rights, to defend our elections and the freedom of the press. Then, and since, I have marveled at the Ukrainian willingness to fight for their democracy, sovereignty, and territorial integrity. We drove through the darkened streets of a city beset by sporadic Russian aerial bombardment, watched ordinary Ukrainians carry on despite the dangers, and spent hours with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his national security team analyzing the battlefield and hearing his appeals for stronger U.S. Last year, I traveled to Kyiv with Speaker Nancy Pelosi as part of the first delegation of House members to visit the Ukrainian capital during the war. Editor’s note: This commentary was originally published in print on May 7 as part of a pro-con debate page. ![]()
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