A year into the war, support for Ukraine remains critical | Editorial

One year after Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, the war stands at an inflection point. The stakes are high, as the outcome will likely shape the future of peace, prosperity, and democracy around the world.

Russian President Vladimir Putin expected a quick war, but after meeting fierce Ukrainian resistance and suffering a series of humiliating military setbacks, he is now dug in for a long fight. Both sides are said to be gearing up for major new offensives while the danger of the war escalating into a broader conflict looms.

Putin has already threatened to use nuclear weapons. A pressing new concern is whether China will send arms to Russia — a move that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned could lead to a world war.

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President Joe Biden made a surprise and daring visit to Kyiv on Monday and declared Ukraine is winning. “One year later, Kyiv stands,” Biden said. “And Ukraine stands. Democracy stands. The Americans stand with you, and the world stands with you.” Biden was even more forceful in a speech Tuesday in Poland where he described the war as “a test for the ages.”

While the outcome of the war remains uncertain, this has so far been Biden’s finest hour. The sight of Biden standing shoulder to shoulder with Zelensky in Kyiv as air-raid sirens sounded was a powerful show of strength. It stood in stark contrast to Putin’s grievance-filled speech Tuesday that rehashed many of the lies he has told over the past year.

Putin has cast the war as a fight against “Nazism” and an effort to protect Russia from being overrun by NATO. That is delusional blather, of course, but since Russia has no free press and jails protesters, most Russians continue to blindly support Putin’s “special military operation.”

Despite Putin’s paranoid propaganda, the vaunted Russian military has proved to be inept, antiquated, and incompetent. Troops have been sent into battle with 50-year-old rifles and no maps, medical kits, or walkie-talkies.

Thousands of civilian men have fled Russia rather than be forced into battle, leaving Putin to lean on the Wagner Group, a private mercenary company that has recruited fighters from prisons.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainians, under Zelensky’s lead, have put up a brave fight to defend their country and democracy. Their valor is not without cost: About 100,000 Ukrainian soldiers and 40,000 civilians have died. More than eight million Ukrainians have fled the country, while 100,000 Russian soldiers have died as well, according to estimates.

The Russian war machine has been barbaric. Hundreds of Ukrainian civilians have been dumped in mass graves. A United Nations report documented widespread Russian war crimes, including rape, torture, and executions.

Russia’s cruel attacks on Ukraine’s energy grid have left millions without electricity, water, and heat. More than 1,000 schools and dozens of apartment buildings have been shelled. Hundreds of hospitals have been bombed, including maternity wards.

The cost to rebuild Ukraine is $1 trillion and counting. But the cost of losing the war would be even higher, striking a destabilizing blow to Europe and beyond. That is why the U.S. and NATO must speed up military support to Kyiv. It is not enough for the West to supply just enough weapons for Ukrainians to die another day.

» READ MORE: On the first anniversary of Putin’s invasion, Ukraine fights on for its independence and for the security of the West | Trudy Rubin

Zelensky has pleaded with the U.S. and European allies for more tanks, fighter jets, missile launchers, and artillery. The U.S. has already provided more than $27 billion in military assistance to Ukraine. It is a price worth paying to help preserve freedom and democracy.

It was a welcome development to see at least two leading House Republicans call on Biden to increase aid. Particularly as several Republicans have balked at supporting Ukraine, including House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Rep. Scott Perry of York, the election denier who voted against a bill to collect and preserve evidence of Russian war crimes in Ukraine.

This is not the time for the GOP to go wobbly.

Biden has done a deft job of uniting European allies to support Ukraine while trying not to escalate the fight with Russia. But the war is far from over. It’s time to give Ukraine what it needs to win.