In a 93-to-18 vote, UN member countries voted to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It came on the third anniversary of Russia’s brutal, unprovoked invasion.
Shamefully, the U.S., along with North Korea, Russia, and communist-controlled Belarus, voted against the UN resolution supporting Ukraine. The resolution names Russia as the aggressor, which it was. Every European nation except one voted for the resolution, as did America’s allies in the Pacific, such as Japan and South Korea.
The resolution in support of Ukraine was so obviously correct that even nations friendly to Russia like Serbia and Turkey voted for the resolution.
On X (formerly Twitter), former Vice President Mike Pence wrote,
Three years ago today, Russia launched an unprovoked, brutal invasion of Ukraine. A few short weeks later, Karen Pence and I travelled with Samaritans Purse and witnessed firsthand the flood of women and children fleeing the Russian onslaught near the Ukrainian border. We will never forget it. Every day since, Ukrainian soldiers have bravely fought and died on this front line of freedom and the American people and our Allies have rightly given them the means to defend their nation. As Leader of the Free World, America must continue to Stand Strong and lead free nations to give Ukraine the support they need to win a victory for their sovereignty, security and freedom. Slava Ukraini!
Sending aid to Ukraine keeps Russia from taking over Ukraine and then killing tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians. Russia has killed thousands of civilians in areas of Ukraine it occupies, sometimes in massacres. It has tortured and executed prisoners. If Russia takes over Ukraine, it will be on the border with Poland, America’s NATO ally, which Russian nationalists would like to take over and conquer, because much of Poland was part of Russia until 1918. The Soviet Union seized more than half of Poland from 1939-1941.
Russia has committed atrocities in the areas of Ukraine it controls. “In a forest outside” the Ukrainian town of “Izium, where Russian forces dumped the bodies of the civilians they murdered, 445 bodies were retrieved” from mass graves. Images of the mass graves can be found at this link.
Sending aid to Ukraine has enabled it to weaken Russia’s ability to make war and attack NATO. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that “The U.S. navy isn’t prepared to face Russia’s navy.” But as columnist Noah Smith pointed out, with U.S. aid, “Ukraine destroyed much of Russia’s navy, without even having a navy of their own!” Ukraine has “killed or wounded hundreds of thousands of Russian troops, and destroyed large quantities of equipment.” Images of 75 Russian ships sunk by the Ukrainians can be found at this link.
U.S. aid to Ukraine has been very small compared to America’s military budget, amounting to less than 0.2% of our GDP annually, but it had a big payoff in preventing Russia from taking over Ukraine and then threatening our NATO allies such as Poland. Russia already engages in aggressive behavior toward our NATO allies, such as Estonia. Russia seized an Estonian official on Estonian territory near the Estonian-Russian border while he was carrying out his official duties to prevent transnational crime, and sentenced him to 15 years in prison.
Ukrainians do not want to be conquered by the Russians. Despite their battlefield losses, most Ukrainians support their president, Zelensky, whose approval rating is above 50% in most polls. Zelensky was elected in 2019 “with 73.23 percent of the vote.” That’s “the biggest landslide in the history of Ukrainian presidential elections.”
