Dear Editor:
Traditionally, regardless of party affiliation, Ukrainian Americans join together to lobby officials on issues related to Ukraine, presenting our expectations as deserving bipartisan support. Anti-Ukrainianism by officials is rebuked by Ukrainian members of their party. Ukrainian Republicans voiced dismay when President Gerald Ford declared in a debate, “There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe” and when George H. W. Bush advised Ukraine’s Parliament to spurn “suicidal nationalism.” Ukrainian supporters of Donald Trump were indignant about his comments on Vladimir Putin and Paul Manafort’s appointment as chairman of Trump’s campaign.
Recently, in contrast, we are witnessing efforts of some anti-Trump Ukrainian Democrat zealots to get the community to turn away completely from the president, replicating the anti-Trump “resist” hysteria. A reader’s letter in The Weekly practically calls for never letting let up in Trump condemnations, regardless that Ukraine may be benefiting from his policy decisions, arguing that past Trump tweets outweigh his actions while in office. As Ukraine awaited the president’s decision on recommendations to sell lethal weapons to Ukraine, a scathing paid advertisement appeared in The Weekly, signed by 100 Ukrainian Americans, virtually calling for Mr. Trump’s removal. No appeal appeared, however, when Barack Obama was president about his refusal to comply with congressional legislation authorizing lethal aid to Ukraine. A rebuke probably won’t appear of the letter from 57 congressmen, all Democrats, who accuse Ukraine’s government of engaging in “glorifications of Nazi collaborators”
Partisan fanaticism has clouded the memory that our preceding president took many Moscow-friendly actions in his first term, dismissing his contender’s characterization of Russia as a geopolitical threat. There’s little denying that Ukraine’s inaction when Mr. Putin’s “little green men” were taking over Crimea had a U.S. connection. The interim government debated resistance and it’s a question what most influenced its decision to order a stand-down: that Ukraine had a combat ready force of only 5,000, or pressure from the Obama administration to avoid confrontation.
Kyiv kept hearing that pushback would precipitate larger invasions. But in a subsequent interview with Atlantic Editor Jeffrey Goldberg, Mr. Obama disclosed his preconception that “Ukraine is a core Russian interest, so Russia will always maintain dominance there.” In Mr. Obama’s words, “Ukraine will be vulnerable to military domination by Russia no matter what.” In the early days, Ukrainian special and volunteer forces could possibly have outmaneuvered Mr. Putin’s men in Crimea as they soon succeeded in doing throughout southern and most of eastern Ukraine. The ease with which Crimea was overtaken likely influenced Mr. Putin to expand operations.
Even stranger was Mr. Obama’s refusal to deliver lethal aid to Ukraine and lift a ban on weapon sales even as Russian forces engaged in military operations in Ukraine. No effort was made to utilize the Budapest Memorandum in finding ways to defend Ukraine’s integrity and governance over Crimea, Instead, the memorandum was swept under the rug.
Through collaborative efforts that entailed suspending partisanship, our community has succeeded in making support of Ukraine a touchstone of American policy regardless of which party is in control.
Easton, Pa.