President Trump, Vice-President Vance, and prime minister without portfolio Elon Musk have all said, in one way or another, that President Zelenskiy of Ukraine does not want peace.
Of course not. That’s why they are fighting. The victim of aggression can usually have peace, of a kind, by surrender. But Ukraine is fighting for other values that Americans hold dear: independence, freedom, democracy and prosperity. As a sovereign nation, Ukraine has a right to pursue trade associations and political alliances of its own choice, not the choice of its larger neighbor to the east. This is true regardless of the historical ties (and historical conflicts) between Russia and Ukraine. In 1991, Ukraine voted for independence by a 92% to 8% margin, in an election with 84% turnout. Those numbers put most American elections to shame. At that time, Ukraine became a sovereign and independent state. In 1994, Ukraine agreed to give up its Soviet-era nuclear weapons in an agreement with Russia, the United States and the United Kingdom. In exchange, the other parties agreed to respect Ukraine’s 1991 borders, to seek redress in the UN Security Council if Ukraine’s borders were violated, and to refrain from economic coercion of Ukraine.
From 1991 until 2014, there was extensive meddling by Russia in Ukrainian affairs, including elections. My company maintained an office in Kiev for about a decade, working with Ukrainian authorities to establish a legal framework for oil and gas production in Ukraine, without success. Our company representative told me that these efforts were sabotaged in the Ukrainian parliament by Russian interference, as Russia wanted to keep Ukraine dependent on Russian energy exports.
The crisis between Russia and Ukraine developed after Ukraine signed a free trade and association agreement with the European Union, in 2013. The agreement came after two decades of rapprochement with the EU, and a year of detailed negotiations. The agreement was overwhelming approved in the Ukraine parliament, but pro-Russian President Yanukovych refused to sign the deal. President Yanukovych was deposed by the parliament in the ensuing crisis. Russia invaded the bordering provinces and Crimea the following year. European negotiators expressed complete shock that the Russians reacted as they did to the free trade agreement. The time since the original Russian invasion has been marked by cease-fire agreements, each later broken by Russia with new military action.
Ukraine has been a vassal state to Russian since Tsarist times. It was robbed and starved in the Holodmor famine of the 1930s. Its independent energy development was stifled in the 1970s, following the discovery of natural gas in the Donbass, and again through Russian political meddling after independence.
Before peace, Ukraine wants independence, freedom, and the opportunity for prosperity through independent association with Europe. After these are secured, then Ukraine will be ready for peace, with Western guarantees of security. These are the same things that a fledgling United States wanted in 1776.
In 1781, after five years of grinding war with Britain, George Washington was marching his army south to confront General Cornwallis in South Carolina. At Philadelphia, the entire army threatened to desert, unless they were paid in coin, instead of Continental paper money. The French representative paid the American soldiers in gold coin, using half of his monetary reserve. The French also provided 10,800 foot soldiers, a larger force than the American army. A fleet of 29 warships fought and defeated the British fleet, and blocked reinforcement of Cornwallis’ army. After a month-long siege, General Cornwallis surrendered to Washington, and the Revolutionary War was over.
Without the assistance of the French, there would have been no Revolutionary War victory. There would be no July 4th, no Star-Spangled Banner, no American government. No one can say what the future would have been, but we would not have achieved independence on our own.
Let there be no doubt that Russia is a tyrannical country. Russia is a country where investigative journalists and opposition politicians are brazenly murdered with the apparent complicity of the secret police. Russia is a country where high-level business executives are flung from high-rise windows, or hacked to death with axes, along with their wives and children. Russia is a country where children are separated from their parents because a child expresses a desire for peace at school. Russia is a country where perceived enemies are hunted down in exile and murdered. Russia is a country where other politicians are poisoned, imprisoned or murdered in prison. Russia is a country where lawyers are imprisoned for simply representing an opposition or anti-corruption client, or suffer fractured skulls during police interrogation. Russia is a country without free media, where all messaging is controlled by the government, and where alternative sources of information on the Internet are banned. Russia is a country without a right to free speech, where even carrying a blank sign can result in a prison term. Russia is a country whose closest allies are North Korea, Iran, China, Cuba and Venezuela, all of whom are antithetical to American values and American interests.
Ukraine is in a similar fight for its independence, freedom, territorial integrity and sovereignty. Ukraine has a sovereign right to choose between freedom, democracy, free speech and free and fair markets, or to submit to Russian tyranny. We owe it to the people of Ukraine to help them defend their lands, their people, and their independence from Russian tyranny, just as France assisted the newborn United States gain our independence from Britain.
