What Does Ukraine Mean to Americans?
Which side are we on in a world increasingly divided between democracies and autocracies?
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A Time Line of Modern Ukraine
1793: Ukraine, formerly part of Poland, is incorporated as a state within the Czarist Russian Empire
1917-18: The Bolsheviks overthrow the Czar. Ukraine eventually declares itself an independent republic.
1922: Ukraine becomes an original member of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.).
1991: With the U.S.S.R.'s collapse, Ukraine again becomes independent.
1994: The Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances is signed by Ukraine, Russia, the United States, and the United Kingdom. In exchange for Ukraine surrendering the nuclear weapons that were remnants of the Soviet era, the agreement prohibits Russia, the United States, and the United Kingdom from threatening or using military force or economic coercion against Ukraine.1
2014-15: Pro-Russian Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych flees to Russia in the face of mass protests (the Revolution of Dignity). Terming the events a coup, Russia occupies and annexes Crimea. In support of the two breakaway republics in eastern Ukraine (Donesk and Lubansk), Russian troops occupy 17 percent of Ukraine, and a stalemate ensues.
2015: Ukraine's parliament enacts legislation stating that under martial law, elections will be postponed, and elected officials will remain in office.2
2019: During the infamous phone call (July 25),3 President Trump threatens to withhold military aid from Ukraine in an attempt to coerce newly elected Ukrainian President Zelenskyy to open an investigation into Hunter Biden’s business dealings in that country. The phone call ultimately leads to Trump's first impeachment.
2022-2025: Russia launches a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in what it calls a “special military operation to de-nazify its neighbor”. The operation that Putin said would take 3 days evolved into World War I-like trench warfare that has gone on for over 3 years.
2024-2025: Ukrainian troops cross the border into Russia and occupy parts of the Kursk oblast (province). Russia has not succeeded in driving the Ukrainians out.
February 28, 2025: At a White House meeting with the press on hand, President Trump attempts to convince Zelenskyy to agree to a ceasefire negotiated bilaterally between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. When he demands security guarantees as a condition, Zelenskyy is berated by Trump and Vice-President J.D. Vance. Zelenskyy left the meeting without agreeing to Trump’s deal.4
Is there a coherent Trump Doctrine?
Despite Russian advantages in manpower and weapons, the Ukrainian military has proven resourceful in defense of their homeland. The United States and European countries have, up to now, supplied military aid to and shared intelligence with Ukraine. The Ukrainians have been innovative in dealing with a more powerful enemy- by their use of drones, for example, both on the battlefield and at sea.5 And when the US and Europeans began providing longer range missiles (ATACMS, Storm Shadows), the Ukrainians used them against military installations and airfields deep in Russia, and eventually against oil refineries and other infrastructure.
The Russians have paid a high price for each kilometer they gain in Eastern Ukraine; their killed and wounded approach a million, along with thousands of tanks destroyed. They have resorted to attacking civilian targets, including the energy infrastructure, with missiles and drones and have reduced cities like Mariupol and Bakhmut to rubble. At the rate of their advance, some estimates say it will take 118 years for Russia to control all of Ukraine.
From the beginning, many commentators felt this was a war of attrition that favored Russia. However, the Russian military has proven itself to be, if not a paper tiger, a cardboard copy. A corrupt, kleptocratic society is not likely to field a well-trained and well-equipped army. Moreover, the Russian economy is being hurt by a war that can be seen as a self-inflicted injury. The regime has gone to great lengths to obscure the consequences of economic sanctions leveled by the US and other nations, the freezing of Russian assets held in Western banks, and the material and human costs of the war. In fact, as military historians Phillips Payson O’Brien and Eliot A. Cohen write in The Atlantic, Russia is losing.
Wars are rarely won so decisively, because attrition is not only a condition of war, but a strategic choice. Smaller powers can, through the intelligent application of attrition, succeed in advancing their own goals. This is particularly true if, like Ukraine, they can exploit technological change and get the most from outside support and allies.
So, it is possible that Trump was wrong when he told Zelenskyy during the White House meeting that “he didn’t have the cards right now”. The combination of his pique with the Ukrainian President for the 2019 refusal to investigate the Bidens and his desire to act as the dealmaker6 frustrated Trump to the point began to pressure Zelenskyy: within two days, he announced a “pause” in US military aid. A day later, he announced he was also pausing the sharing of intelligence with Ukraine, information used by Ukraine’s armed forces for tracking and targeting Russian troop movements.
This is peak-Trump, bullying a weaker party. The “deal” he presented to Zelenskyy in exchange for a ceasefire was to leave Russian forces in place and for Ukraine to grant the US rights to their raw earth minerals. Not only had Putin not agreed to any of these terms, but given his history of ignoring such agreements, Zelenskyy asked for a guarantee of security. Trump ignored the request, accusing Zelenskyy of not wanting peace.
I’m reminded of Dan Ackroyd’s 1983 film “Doctor Detroit”. There is a scene in which a mob boss, Mom, informs a pimp, Smooth Walker, that she’s taking over his operations. “I’m taking your girls, the drugs, the gambling”, Mom tells Smooth.
Smooth: “What does that leave me?” Mom: “I’ll let you live.”
Mom offered Smooth more than Trump offered Zelenskyy. As if to punctuate the cynicism of Trump’s stance, Russia launched a massive missile and drone attack on Ukrainian power and gas infrastructure overnight, two days after the cessation of US intelligence sharing.
Trump, leaving no doubts, has made it clear which side he is on, offering Ukraine no guarantees of a durable peace. He sees the world as divided into the strong and the weak and sees the interests of the US as more aligned with authoritarian Russia and China. These are the leaders with whom he can make deals. These are the leaders who interfere in our politics to his advantage. In his mind, dealing with them on what he believes elevates his status. He is acting in his interests, not the interests of the United States.
A Note on American Leadership
Geopolitics is not the subject of most kitchen-table discussions. It is complicated and nuanced, and it is not easily reduced to stories of good guys and bad guys with a few neutral parties thrown in. Jonathan V. Last, writing in The Bulwark, delves into the role of America as a superpower and how the Trump team is squandering away our leadership position.
Trump and Republicans want to retreat from that leadership not because they want to put “America first,” but because they want to elevate Russia and China to peer status.
Trump’s “America first” policy is actually about selling out America’s interests in exchange for foreign assistance in putting Trump first.
This stuff isn’t quantum mechanics. American leadership in the world benefits America. First and foremost. To the extent that it also benefits other countries, that’s great. Good for us.
But that’s not why we do it. That’s never been why we do it.
The people who want to pull back America’s leadership in the world under the pretense of being for “America First” are making us weaker, poorer, and less secure.
And for what? For saving a few hundred billion dollars? The whole point of being the strongest, wealthiest country on the planet is so that you have resources to deploy. That’s what the money’s for.
So what are these people up to? Are they just stupid? Does JD Vance not understand that, in giving away America’s leadership advantage, he is making us smaller and more vulnerable? Do these people not get that they are hastening into existence a multipolar world in which America is not the dominant power but merely a regional player that then becomes hostage to the interests of other countries?
You can read the full piece here.
To affirm JVL’s thesis, the Europeans have acted swiftly to move forward in a world without America’s leadership. At a meeting of the European Council last week, plans were announced to spend about 800 billion Euros on assistance to Ukraine and multinational defense. Read about these actions here.
Putin has always demanded that Ukraine not join NATO, and that Trump, as if in service to Putin’s wishes, has threatened to withdraw the US from the alliance. The irony is that both men’s actions are bringing the other members closer together.
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“Ukraine has been under martial law since 2022, when Russia invaded the country. Ukraine's constitution — adopted in 1996 — outlined the principles of rule under martial law. “ (Anna Rascouët-Paz, Snopes.com, Fec 21, 2025)
Foreign policy experts such as Fiona Hill and Robert Kagan have recently pointed out that Putin will not agree to security measures. He is against an international peacekeeping force in Ukraine to police a cease-fire. His ultimate goal is the elimination of the Ukrainian state, language, and culture. His goal is to absorb Ukraine into Russia.
It's relative clear that Trump wants to be as rich and powerful as his 'lovers' Putin and Xi. He loves their power over Russian and China citizens. By suppressing the expenditures of American interests ratified by Congress he hopes to make tax cuts that enhance the riches of billionaire and millionaire Americans like himself at the expense of ordinary Americans. That's the riches part. By firing bureaucrats, government employees with 'safe' jobs under Civil Service regulations and tenure agreements, he hopes to cut the American budget by enough money to reinforce the dollars going to oligarchs AND keep Americans quiet and in place. With no safe airlines with TSA and air traffic controlers minimize nobody travels far. With education cuts and penalties attached to so much of curriculum and reading alternatives, the People are kept dumb about opportunities outside their narrow communities. With threats to primary elected officials and opposition candidates or incumbents in government service, he hopes to enhance his power over all Americans. He doesn't count on judges and ordinary jurisprudence to thwart his moves in those directions.
By cutting back on foreign aid, he permits other countries like China to move into disputed countries and expand their influence. By minimizing medical programs like Obamacare and Medicare, he hopes to make foreigners more susceptible to disease and death that reduce opposition to foreign governments. By appointing a sycophant Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, who simply obeys orders to stay prominent and in elevated status (over Senators), he thinks American influence will recede. By sharing, or even dividing up the world, Trump hopes to remain one of the tree shakers, who rule the world while other oligarchs accept him as an equal. Just view the co-presidency of Trump and Elon Musk. Musk, the South African foreigner, used to apartheid and segregation. He promotes the richest man in the world and likes the acceptance, the company, of rich, powerful men like Musk. That makes him larger in world influence, he thinks.
I'm counting on the rule of the slow acting 'rule of law', justices, and lawyers to rein in the excesses, the illegalities, of Trump actions within America. But if this doesn't hold in the long term, I'm counting on the pissed off veterans, dispossessed ordinary citizens (losing jobs, housing and retirement money) to demonstrate or more. Civil disobedience and the ultimate armed resistance are next if institutions don't hold under the law and right thinking leaders and employees. Notice how unions, anti-corruption, anti-discrimination and civil rights organizations are fighting back over Musk firings, hackings and media beratings. Notice how the media rally to thwart losing freedom of the press. See how democracy-philes are speaking out against Project 2025 and Trump actions.
There's life yet in the body politic to resist and repel Trump's MAGA-ites. Will there be enough attention paid and action by ordinary citizens, losing food stamps, housing, jobs, retirement savings, and the like, to backstop this country? One can only hope based on the emerging evidence. Watch the news.