The United States must help Ukraine with aid and weapons

Post-independence, Congress provided substantial aid to Ukraine to bolster its independence and democracy.

I witnessed this up close working for decades on the Hill at the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, whose membership consists of senators and representatives. It did not matter one iota if they were Democrats or Republicans, conservative, moderate or liberal — all were united in supporting freedom, human rights and democracy in Ukraine. And there were no divisions when it came to calling out Moscow for its numerous violations of international agreements, be it in Russia, Ukraine or elsewhere.

It would be a tragic abandonment of Congress’s long-standing bipartisan support for Ukraine’s freedom if one wing of one party, largely in one chamber, were to block funding for Ukraine at this critical time.

As Ukrainians are fighting not only for their own freedom and security but also ours, congressional inaction would be a profound betrayal of our national interests, the rules-based international order and the values we have long espoused.

Orest Deychakiwsky, Charles Town, W.Va.

In his 1948 speech to the British House of Commons, Winston Churchill warned, “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” The events that began in 1938 (on the eve of World War II) were most likely much on his mind. The French, Italians and Britain acceded to Adolf Hitler’s planned annexation of the German-speaking Sudetenland (part of Czechoslovakia) following his assurance that he had “no more territorial demands to make in Europe.” Hitler’s army not only rolled into the Sudetenland. It invaded Czechoslovakia in March 1939, Poland that September and France in 1940.

Does this have a familiar ring to it? Maybe it should. Russian President Vladimir Putin is the 21st century’s Hitler. In 2014, he “annexed” Crimea and occupied eastern Ukraine. The destroyer of cities and wholesale murderer of innocent men, women and children, Mr. Putin is a war criminal determined to conquer all of Ukraine. He is an existential threat to Ukraine’s bordering NATO allies and the United States.

Clearly, Ukraine is the United States’ front line of defense against this monstrous evil. Let’s not pretend it’s just Ukraine’s war. Our continued aid to this struggling country and its valiant soldiers is critical to our interests, too.

To the Republican members of Congress: Stop listening to the self-serving rantings of former president Donald Trump, who knows nothing of history nor cares. Stop putting petty power politics ahead of our country and the world’s security, including by holding Ukraine funding hostage to a U.S. border agreement that now must be endorsed by a reckless former president, ostensibly after he is reelected.

Richard W. Stinson, Bethesda

In the Jan. 26 front-page article “In Kharkiv, little letup in rain of Russian missiles,” a Ukrainian defender stated that the best way of stopping Russian close-in missile launches is to use High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS). But Washington has barred Ukrainians from using them to attack targets in Russia. If this restriction on weapons use is true and continues, it is more than absurd! It means the United States is complicit in allowing more Ukrainians to be killed by Moscow.

There are multiple levels of duplicity here, and the United States should be deeply ashamed of this cowardly appeasement. The National Security Council and White House are too clever by half and spineless and do not deserve to say they live “in the home of the brave.” What disgusting and hollow words: “We will stand by Ukraine.” Yes, just enough for thousands more to be blown apart, day after day.

Peter Jacobi, Arlington

Regarding the Jan. 27 front-page article “In Ukraine, U.S. dials back plans to take turf”:

It is premature to plan for transitioning Ukraine to manufacturing its own weapons, so long as Russia can continue hitting Ukraine with missiles and drones fired from Russian sanctuaries in Crimea, on the Black Sea and in Russia itself. Right now, Russia is attacking Ukrainian apartment buildings and markets, but weapons factories can also be targeted by Russia, if Ukraine tries to build them.

Ukraine should first be given our 300-kilometer Army Tactical Missile System with unitary warheads and the German Taurus with a 500-kilometer range, so Ukraine can at least drive the Russian missile launchers out of Crimea and off the Black Sea.

Richard Joffe, New York