Opinion: America’s Obligation to Ukraine

By Julian Duberstein ‘23
As our senior class travels abroad, our minds are torn to the current hellscape of Russian power assertion; a blatant, unjustified attempt to bulldoze an innocent population of 44 million, engulfed by an utter disregard for human life. This more than alarming scenario is characteristic of Eastern Europe’s existential struggle, unparalleled since World War II. This is Ukraine’s reality.  

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An unprepared democracy, expressing idealogic strides toward the West since a 2014 revolution against its Russian-sympathetic and authoritarian leader, Ukraine has catapulted the North American Trade Organization and all of Europe into a now-or-never decision. While NATO has mobilized their military Response Force for the first time in the alliance’s history, CNN states that “US President Biden has been clear that US troops are deploying to eastern Europe… [but] will not be fighting in Ukraine.”
Enveloped by daunting factors, whether it be the unprecedented reminder of global powers’ nuclear arsenals, the unwavering influence of international markets and fuel dependence or the burgeoning Russo-Chinese alliance, the United States is militarily incapacitated. Despite this, we know that we must act: a preschool, orphanage and hospital have been bombed within just the second day of conflict, amongst other flagrant war crimes.
Sweeping repercussions would follow any similar operation by American troops, which leads me to my ultimate point: Biden, along with other world leaders, must institute the strongest possible sanctions to prevent the rise of an empirical Russia with Vladimir Putin, an emerging Tsar, at the helm. 
In our technologically-advanced times, hacking and cybersecurity, particularly in warfare, pose an imminent threat to our society. As The Independent published before the war began, “The first appointed head of cybersecurity for the US Air Force has quit and likened the country’s preparedness for internet warfare to a ‘kindergarten’ compared to China,” while continuing to cite Russian cyberattacks. We also must not let the integrity of the 2016 election slip from our collective consciousness. 
While strong sanctions have already been imposed on both Putin himself and the Russian prime minister, along with others on the Russian Security Council, it is important to note the distinction that Russia is not an autocracy, but an oligarchy — Putin still has the status of others’ investments to answer to. The most powerful international imposition would be removing Russia from SWIFT, the global banking system’s artery for international transactions, likely forcing his hand and sinking the Russian ruble even farther (as it has relatively stabilized already under the lack of the current sanctions' magnitude). 
America’s cognitive dissonance is best embodied by The View’s co-host, Joy Behar, as she follows the heartfelt plea of her colleague, Sonny Hostin, over Ukraine’s projected 50,000 casualties by whining, “I want to go to Italy for four years and I haven’t been able to make it because of the pandemic. And now this. It’s like, ‘What’s gonna happen there?’’’
 Why do we say “never again,” yet only practice American interventionism when it’s not an inconvenience?
Moreover, this is the closest example of a WWII narrative possible, aside from a literal invasion of Israel; Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is Jewish, yet one of Putin’s many false justifications is the “denazification” of a democracy, led by a Jew.
This maxim perfectly encapsulates the spirit and psyche of the Ukrainian people, at the moment abandoned to fight for their survival alone: a lone woman approached a gun-toting Russian soldier, and in facing his futile attempt to deescalate, offered him seeds and forewarned with unyielding conviction, “at least sunflowers will grow when you all lie down here.”
Now we must stand with them or suffer the consequences.




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