Early in September, I was getting urgent messages. The White House, for no discernable reason, was blocking congressionally appropriated aid to Ukraine. And “urgent” is the correct word. According to arcane budget rules, funds not obligated by the end of the fiscal year (September 30) would be lost – nearly $400 million, desperately needed to defend against Russian aggression in the Donbas. An outpouring of calls to the White House, the media and members of Congress forced President Donald Trump to back down.
Although $400 million is a lot of money, and Ukraine is not even in the top 10 of U.S. foreign aid recipients. Still, it’s enormously important. Losing that funding might well lead to Ukraine losing the war, which is why Europe is also providing massive assistance.
President Ronald Reagan memorably labeled the Soviet Union the “Evil Empire” and indeed it was, having perpetrated the murder of tens of millions with Terror, Holodomor, a world war launched in collaboration with Nazi Germany, the Gulag, intervention on behalf of global Russian hegemony, etc. The U.S., our NATO allies and other countries expended trillions of dollars and sacrificed tens of thousands of lives in the Cold War, the “long twilight struggle” President John F. Kennedy described – a war for civilization. Destruction of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and collapse of the Soviet Union two years later were singular triumphs for America and the Free World.
Now, Russian President Vladimir Putin is working to restore the empire. His primary target is Ukraine, the country President Jimmy Carter’s National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski cited as “a geopolitical pivot.” Its very existence as an independent country, he wrote, means Russia ceases to be a Eurasian empire; however, should Moscow regain control there, it regains the means to again become an imperial state.
After investing untold blood and treasure to defeat the “Evil Empire,” we must not squander that by allowing Mr. Putin to succeed in Ukraine. Not yet a member of the European Union or NATO, Ukraine is defending Europe, standing up for its values as well as ours at the cost of 13,000 of its citizens killed and nearly 2 million internally displaced. It is a humanitarian imperative for America to support Ukraine, but also in our geo strategic interest. Russia is destabilizing the Middle East and Central America, threatening our European allies and interfering in America’s elections. Ukraine’s enemy is America’s enemy. That’s why we’re allies.
Indeed, independent Ukraine has been a U.S. ally for decades, its soldiers fighting alongside our own in Afghanistan and Iraq and participating in U.N. peacekeeping missions. But the country made an even greater and unparalleled contribution to America’s national security. Upon freeing itself from the USSR, Ukraine became the world’s third largest nuclear power – after the U.S. and Russia – its weapons targeted against America and NATO. In 1994, Ukraine gave up its nuclear arsenal in return for security assurances from the U.S., Russia and the United Kingdom: i.e., respect for Ukraine’s independence, national sovereignty and borders, as laid out in the Budapest Memorandum. Russia, for its part, retained its nuclear arsenal. Lest we forget, these weapons today are targeted against the U.S. and our NATO allies.
Twenty-five years after its signing, the Budapest Memorandum has implications for America’s (and President Trump’s) foreign policy. The president wants North Korea to reverse its nuclear program and for Iran to permanently reject a nuclear weapons program of its own. Both initiatives are going nowhere. And why would they? Seeing how Mr. Trump treats an ally that actually did do away with its nuclear weapons, it’s clear why North Korea, Iran or any other country would not trust America now.
The Budapest Memorandum, to be clear, is not the only guarantee of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. These include Basket One provisions of the Helsinki Accords which the Soviet Union, the U.S., Canada and 32 European countries signed in 1975; bilateral agreements Ukraine and the Russian Federation signed in 1997; United Nations agreements the Soviet Union, Ukraine, the U.S. and other countries signed, going back to the organization’s founding in 1945.
And yet, those are all paper guarantees that Russia feels free to violate. Real assurances involve military. As the telephone transcript he released and multiple diplomatic messages reveal, President Trump tried to use Ukraine assistance as leverage against President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to coerce him to provide (manufacture?) dirt against former Vice-President Joe Biden, whom Mr. Trump obviously sees as his most formidable opponent in 2020. That overture was not only corrupt on its face, it violated agreements, circumvented nearly unanimous congressional intent and, had the clock run out, would have served Mr. Putin’s imperial agenda.
Which raises the ominous question of whether Mr. Trump blocked Ukraine aid at Mr. Putin’s behest. We will probably never know because there’s no record of what was discussed in their numerous secret meetings and phone calls. Even translator notes were seized and no doubt destroyed. (Although there are surely records in the Kremlin archives.)
What we do know is Mr. Putin’s obsession with Ukraine – to the point of war – and that Mr. Trump accommodates him at every turn. One member of Congress even wondered whether Mr. Putin was listening in on the Trump-Zelenskyy conversation. Whether he did or didn’t, there’s no question but that Russian intelligence is in the know. When it comes to Mr. Trump, Mr. Putin, Russia, Ukraine and America, there have been many secrets over the past three years, but no mystery.
The United States recognized Ukraine in December 1991 after a national independence referendum where an astonishing 84 percent of the voting-age population cast more than 90 percent of their votes to separate from the “Evil Empire” and set their own national course. Ukraine has been a linchpin to geopolitical architecture and Western security ever since. As for Donetsk and Luhansk, site of today’s war, more than 80 percent of voters there opted for independence. In Crimea, illegally seized by Russia, independence passed by a 54-46 margin.
Having grown up as a kid yearning for Ukraine’s independence and then as an adult working to promote it, I’m gratified that America has consistently supported my parents’ homeland and doubly grateful that it’s been in my country’s interest to do so; which is why President Trump’s approach to Ukraine is so egregious, betraying agreements, American values and national security. Support Ukraine, folks – it’s the right thing to do.
Andrew Fedynsky’s e-mail address is [email protected].