By Daniel Rivera, Editorial Intern
In 2014, Russia annexed Crimea by sending in thousands of unmarked troops to test the Ukrainian response.
In early 2022, the Russian army began another unjustified invasion, with them marching on Kiev. Ukraine would stun the world with its defiance of Russian aggression, holding the city.
There is no Russian peace
Russia began first with the unprovoked assault on Crimea after the candidate it preferred was removed in a parliamentary vote. Yet even after this, Ukraine would come to the table and agree to a set of agreements called the Minsk agreements which both sides would come to violate.
In broad strokes, the Minsk agreements stipulated that if the Russian military would withdraw from the conquered territories, in exchange Donetsk and Luhansk (the breakaway states in Russia’s captured territory) would gain near full autonomy while remaining a part of Ukraine, including the ability to regulate trade and border relations.
Russia argued that granting the two breakaway states the ability to do so would in essence guarantee Russian security by providing it a security partner as a buffer to Ukraine. Ukraine argues that this is political sabotage, in that having two politically independent entities inside their country in their parliament would essentially give Russia a way to manipulate the governance of Ukraine from within.
There is a long history of Ukrainian appeasement of Russian demands. During the dissolvement of the Soviet Union, Ukraine, being one of the fledgling new nations, had a massive stockpile of nuclear weapons which it gave up voluntarily in exchange for sovereignty of its borders.
This is quite the ask, because historically nuclear weapons are thought of as the only deterrent against aggression from a superpower, a precedent Vladimir Putin intends on continuing.
And lastly Russia is not de-nazifying Ukraine and it’s not protecting the Russian ethnic minority in the eastern part of the country. It marched on the capital in the opening weeks of the war in an attempt to crush all resistance by fragmenting their command structure.
There can be no peace unless Russia is forced back from its captured territory, and is beaten into a position that it can no longer threaten the various states on its fringes. That means supporting Ukraine’s military so that it can win this war and maintain its own security in the post-war future.
Russian expansion and domination
Many might not be aware of this, but Russia, similar to the United States, is built on conquered lands. The only difference is that parts of it managed to break away in the form of the Balkans and the Baltic states.
When the Soviet Union dissolved, Russia as we know it today lost about 25% of its total land territory long after the period of decolonization.
Russia would go to spend 30 years crushing various insurrectionist movements on the fringes of its own territory along with intervening in neighboring countries to prop up puppet states.
Romania, Georgia, former Yugoslavia, Turkey and Kazakhstan have all experienced Russian bombs or Russian troops in their borders protecting yet another puppet state like Abkhazia, Transnistria and South Ossetia.
Russia has only imperialist ambitions along its borders, something that it inherited from the Soviet Union and the Russian Empire. Putin has talked about restoring the territory of the former Russian Empire, which includes territory from over a dozen countries.
It is in the interest of world peace, that an empire with professed ambitions on sovereign nations must be held back and reduced to such a state that it can no longer fund a war effort abroad.
While the United States remains the world’s sole superpower, it’s best to remember that Russia is a regional power in the area of the world that Ukraine is in. The Russian flavor of imperialism may not be as far-reaching as the Americans, but for the people of Ukraine it’s just as real as any victim of U.S. imperialism.
NATO response
There have been calls for NATO’s expansion, that NATO is getting ever closer to Russia. Recently Finland and Sweden pushed to join NATO in reaction towards Russian imperialism, was this also NATO expansion?
What these critics are saying, perhaps knowingly or not, is that any country that borders Russia must consider Russia’s security needs while also considering their own, an absurd ask that violates sovereignty.
Russia is NATO’s greatest salesperson. Consider that Sweden was neutral since World War II. As the Nazis marched through Europe they built up their fortress and isolated.
The left calls for America to withdraw its support so that Russia can solidify its gains and negotiate a favorable peace.
A solution tried and failed, as any calls for negotiations start with a complete withdrawal to the 2014 borders which still violate the very peace agreements Russia endorsed. And short of that, Ukraine forcibly incorporating Luhansk and Donetsk back into the nation without condition. A vote of self governance should still be held for both breakaway states after the various peoples who were forced out either can return or can be reached to participate, anything short of that would only include either Ukrainian armed forces and separatists voting which is not representative of the pre-existing population.
NATO needs to support this war so that it doesn’t have to fight the next one directly, much like what happened as a result of appeasement. If we refuse to aid our brothers and sisters in Ukraine, then we will find ourselves fighting in the next war regardless.
A failure in solidarity
Many peoples never get to have their own countries, like the Kurds, the Palestinians, and the Romany peoples. Don’t add Ukraine to the growing list of nations the United States was in the position to assist but chose not to.
The left are some of the greatest advocates for throwing Ukraine to the wolves. They claim the U.S. is escalating the war and often refer to our actions in Iraq. A common retort to that argument is Nazi appeasement, but there is an element that goes beyond World War II comparison, the Spanish Civil War.
Stopping a larger war
Two spectors of war loom over the battlefield, China and the United States, they both use this war to gain intel on how the next modern war will be fought. With two new countries joining NATO and the Balkans militarizing, Eurasia is preparing for the next war with a victorious Russia.
In the 1930s, Spain had a chance to be a democratic republic 40 years earlier than in our timeline and possibly prevent the march of fascism in Europe. Like the war in Ukraine, the various proxies, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union used the war to test out military equipment and tactics. All of which were used in the next war, the war that ended in the dropping of a nuclear bomb.
Many leftists pushed for the United States to intervene, but like Iraq did for us, World War I left that generation weary of war. But in our weariness we might just start another and Ukraine gets to be the sacrificial goat for that mistake.
The left scoffs at the cries of appeasement, but they demand Ukraine negotiate with the invader while they are on the verge of carrying out a major offensive. Failing to support the fight against fascism is direct support for it by letting it gain power, hoping it will never be our problem which history has already proven false.
National Sovereignty
The march of world capital around the world has tied our world together through various production and supply chains, but it has also strengthened the old world guard. International corporations have managed to claim near-total ownership of entire national industries and violated the people’s right to the resources in question.
National sovereignty is the only shield any fledgling experiment has to thrive, the two most promising cases being Rojava in Syria under the People’s Defense Units, or YPG, and Chiapas in Mexico under the Zapatista National Liberation Army, or EZLN. Both are home to promising experiments in direct democracy but both offer a stark contrast. The YPG are being assaulted by all sides, the Kurdish people are nationless and fight to cling to whatever territory in three different countries they control while the EZLN have managed to carve out their own autonomous territories by dealing directly with the Mexican state and using national sovereignty as a shield against foreign capital that might exploit them and take their resources.
National sovereignty guarantees that any experiment in democracy or worker’s rights has a chance to grow without succumbing to the power of international capital.
Russia marched on Kiev in the opening months of the war, if they had their way, the Ukrainian people would become nationless as well. It would be a relatively young democracy in eastern Europe being snuffed out by an expansionist Russia.
Some say “socialism was banned in Ukraine” and socialism in Ukraine will be annihilated if Russia seizes it. Russia’s record on worker rights is worse than the United States, Ukraine, or Mexico. Their imperialist aggression offers nothing to the international movement for direct democracy and worker control, they seek to control through their army just like any imperialist power in history. The only difference is that their war machine isn’t as advanced as the United States, so it stalled out in its attempt.
The “Cost” of Support
The Russian army is funded and directed by a dictator and his entourage of petty tyrant oligarchs. This army is so badly run that Russia resorted to both a draft and recruiting prisoners to throw to the meat grinder. They care little for their own people or their soldiers. The countless dead men will be worth it to Russia if they get to keep their stolen territory.
Needless to say, the Russian war machine is flagging, taking heavy losses around Bakhmut in what has become a grinding siege. We are sending the Ukrainians old weapon systems, while the packages that are sent are in the billions, the money mostly goes back to American industry. These systems, like the older models of M1A1 Abrams tanks, are outdated, lacking certain modern electronics.
These were systems that largely were going to be replaced regardless, at least this way we can support a people getting their nation back instead of sending them to another petty warlord with no accountability.
Long-Term Peace
Peace is always the goal, it should be considered in all things. In order to defend peace, there must be preparations for those who seek to disturb it. Russia has started two wars in under a decade, first with Crimea and then again with Kyiv. Supporting Ukraine in its defense and in the post-war settlement is the only way to guarantee peace, as it will disincentivize Russia from attacking Eastern Europe and sparking another world war.