As Congress once again grapples with U.S. military aid to Ukraine, Pentagon officials say it is in the U.S. interest to help Ukraine defeat Russian aggression.
Celeste Wallander, assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, told Clifford May, president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, that U.S. support for Ukraine has global implications.
Russia invaded neighboring Ukraine on February 22, 2021. Although Russia’s military was large and well-equipped, Ukrainian forces prevented them from seizing the capital Kiev, decapitating the government, and establishing a puppet government responsive to Russian President Vladimir Putin. .
Ukrainian forces also captured the country’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, and fought to a standstill with Russian forces in the south and east.
The United States has provided $43 billion in aid to Ukraine, targeting everything from Javelin missiles to tanks and ambulances to long-range attack missiles and air defense capabilities. U.S. military personnel are training the Ukrainian military in Europe and the United States. Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III formed and continues to lead the Ukraine Defense and Security Group, which currently includes 50 countries contributing to Ukraine’s defense.
This aid is key to helping Ukrainian forces fight Russian forces and push them back in many areas. In January, U.S. officials announced that more than 300,000 Russians had been killed or injured in Ukraine.
Wallander said the United States wants a sovereign, independent and secure Ukraine, adding that the Ukrainian people do not want a Russian monarch and are fighting for their freedom. “We want Ukrainians to be able to live a European life of their own choosing,” she said during the discussion.
Wallander said that while supporting Ukraine is the right thing to do, U.S. support is not just for Ukraine. “(Our support) is about an international order that protects the security of all countries and all peoples, including Russia,” she said.
He said Putin was trying to “destroy” the international order. President Putin wants great powers to be able to intimidate and control their smaller neighbors.
And Russia’s actions have repercussions around the world, she said. “This is not just a European security issue, this is a global security issue,” Wallander said.
Built into the framework of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons is an agreement in which nuclear-weapon states agree to respect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of other states and to support the peaceful uses of nuclear energy for their own prosperity. “All of that is at stake with Russia’s invasion and occupation of Ukraine,” she said.
Further afield, China’s leaders are closely watching the war in Ukraine and “have a huge stake in Russia’s success,” Wallander said.
If Putin succeeds in shredding the United Nations Charter and profiting from the use of force in Europe, “what can we do to stop China from going down that path when it’s ready?” she asked. Ta.
China has supported Russia’s illegal aggression, and the Asian country has benefited from Russia’s increasing isolation. “The Chinese leadership does not want President Putin to lose because of what it will do to the international community’s ability to fight back against bullies,” she said.
Besides the geopolitical reasons for supporting Ukraine, there are also very human reasons. The Russian invasion has been incredibly brutal, with indiscriminate attacks on civilians across the country. Wallander pointed out that Russian atrocities are not limited to Ukraine. Russian forces used the same tactics in Chechnya and Georgia.
But in Ukraine, Russia does more than just target civilian infrastructure. Russia is separating Ukrainian children from their families and sending orphans to Russia. This is a “Nazi-like idea of ethnic purity, that they need to be educated as Russians, that they are somehow reeducated and brought back to benefit the Russian Federation.” Wallander said. “To think that Europe, which in the 1940s faced the horror of such a leader doing such things to its own people, is now facing another leader doing the same in the 2020s. , which is quite surprising.”
