Decisive Week for Ukraine and the Free World

The United States, the free world and the international community will have an historic opportunity this coming week to unitedly declare again that they will longer tolerate global terrorism and crimes against humanity as they did in 1939, when they mobilized a joint front to defeat Nazi Germany.

These countries have been patiently, with trepidation observing the latest iteration of russia’s war against Ukraine for more than a year and a half while Ukrainian civilians have been killed, their cultural heritage destroyed, and ecology of their homeland contaminated for generations to come.

The member-states of the United Nations will gather in New York City for the 78^th Session of the General Assembly, which presents a reasonably suitable venue to reassert once again the assemblage’s condemnation of moscow’s wanton violation of international law and order. This global forum has in the past adopted more than one resolution denouncing russia for illegally seizing and occupying Crimea and for invading Ukraine. It has authorized sanctions against the powerbrokers in the kremlin, beginning with putin. It should not waste this chance not only to repeat its strong position but to urge the member-states to take decisive action in defense of Ukraine for the sake of global peace and security. A return to the UN's sustainable agenda for global peace, security and development will be impossible without a defeated and humbled russia.

Ukraine can depend on the continuous supportive statements and actions by the United States, Canada, Great Britain as well as the former captive nations of Eastern Europe. It would be unimaginable that no solid action would be undertaken in the wake of such declarations. Armaments and monetary aid should continue to flow into Ukraine.

Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy, who will be one of 193 heads of states or other potentates to address the General Assembly, will meet again with President Biden in the White House.

With the pro-Ukraine mood on Capitol Hill and among Americans wavering, Zelenskyy’s task to muster American and international support for Ukraine is daunting. Today, the Republicans are creating trouble for Ukraine in the hallways of Congress. Ironically, they, descendants of Nixon, Goldwater, Reagan and McCain, must be persuaded that the fate of the free world and Ukraine depends on their support for Ukraine.

To be sure, it’s not that they’re abandoning Ukraine for the sake of russia, but rather they are bored, tiring of the war’s seemingly endless duration, forgetting at the same time that the arduous task of liberating Ukrainian towns can’t be completed haphazardly. The international community, as we witnessed at the G20 summit, fears for its livelihood, which is being torn asunder by russia’s war against Ukraine, not by Kyiv. Consequently, for the pipeline of goods and services that it needs from Ukraine and the region to remain intact, the wealthiest collection of countries must also share the burden of defeating russia or at least creating an environment for its defeat. The fundamental reasons for russia’s defeat and Ukraine’s victory have been expounded frequently at every location by politicians, academics and the citizens on the street.

Zelenskyy will surely present to Biden and the Joint Chiefs of Staff a laundry list of arms and other supplies that Ukraine needs to defeat russia. So, give Ukraine what it needs. Thus far, as we’ve been witnessing, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have been successful in turning the tide of the war against russia. Towns are being liberated, acreage is being reclaimed, russian naval vessels are sunk, moscow itself is under attack, and Crimea may be freed of russian occupation.

All this signals that Ukraine has the means and skills to valiantly and triumphantly fight a 21^st century war against what has turned out to be a second-rate military power. It is incumbent upon the free world to stand with Ukraine and support all its military and political needs while not getting bogged down with claims of corruption. All countries, the United States included, suffer from corruption.

As former prime minister of the United Kingdon Boris Johnson declared “What the hell are we waiting for?” Johnson called on the U.K. to provide howitzers and Storm Shadow cruise missiles and “as much help as we can give them with drone technology.”

Johnson, who is regarded as a cult figure in war-torn Ukraine, respected for his steadfast support of its fight to repel russia’s brutal invasion, wrote in an article in the Spectator that Ukrainians did not want warm words but “weaponry to finish the job – and so I simply do not understand why we keep dragging our feet.”

“Why are we always so slow?” he asked. “How can we look these men in the eye, and explain the delay? Throughout this war we have underestimated the Ukrainians and overestimated Putin, and we are doing the same today.”

Warning about what could happen if Ukraine would lose the war, Johnson said, “If Putin wins – and all he has to do, to claim a victory, is hang on to at least a chunk of the territory he has taken since 24 February 2022 – the dreadful message will go round the world: that this was the moment when the democracies pledged to stand up to the autocracies, and we flunked it. The story of Ukraine will be of lion-hearted Ukrainian troops finally betrayed by western loss of nerve.”

Unconditional international support for Ukraine’s victory over russia is the only guarantee of global and regional peace and security. Russia upended the international security architecture that was established after World War II. It was built by the victorious allies after a long and bloody war against Nazi Germany, which is also the formula for success and peace today. Complete victory over russia will ensure the emergence of the right circumstances for rebuilding Ukraine and preserving that region of the world for generations to come.

The alternative, if russia would prevail in its war against Ukraine, would be fatal for humanity. Russia would secure dangerous allies such as Iran and North Korea. The Eastern European region, north of the Black Sea, would resemble the Middle East, where Muslim radicals periodically launch deadly missile attacks against Israel. Russia would successfully ride roughshod over developing countries in Africa and Asia. Ukraine would be the third bloody regional hotbed of regular russian attacks against unarmed civilians, sucking all democracies’ resources in the hope of containing a rabid belligerent country.

If the free world can muster the strength to halt russia’s war against Ukraine and allow Kyiv to defeat the aggressor-nation thereby allowing the world to return to a semblance of peaceful normality, then this week will surely be remembered in history as a time when dignity of captive nations and the free world was restored.