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We recently marked the one-year anniversary of Russia’s unprovoked invasion of the sovereign nation of Ukraine.
Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s decision to launch a disastrous war against Ukraine wasn’t just foolhardy and unprovoked. It’s among the greatest strategic blunders of the 21st century. Maybe any century.
Putin is solely responsible for more than 200,000 dead and injured Russians and 20,000 Ukrainian soldiers and civilians killed, according to Western officials’ estimates. And for what? A war that resembles nothing more than an ongoing atrocity.
Americans are justifiably proud to stand with the brave people of Ukraine and support their valiant defense of their precious, hard-won independence. Ukrainians have fought so valiantly — and successfully — against the invaders because its people have a long and bitter history of oppression, and they are not going backward.
Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy gave a defiant speech for the ages marking the anniversary of the invasion. “… Nine years ago, the neighbor became an aggressor. A year ago, the aggressor became an executioner, looter and terrorist. We have no doubt they will be held accountable. We have no doubt that we will win.”
Chief in Putin’s blunder was his failure to comprehend that Ukrainians love their independence so much they are willing to fight and die for it, even against overwhelming odds. Putin likewise failed to understand that the United States and other nations where freedom, democracy and the rule of law are supreme cannot stand for his aggression if our values mean anything.
Ukraine’s resistance has been heroic and legendary, and they have right on their side. We must give them every opportunity to prevail and do all we can to help the Ukrainian people during and after this war.
We’re doing that even here in Columbus, where we are connected to Ukraine through a few people we’ve had the privilege to tell you about in pages of The Republic over the past year.
Among them are Ivan Bondar, a Columbus East High School exchange student from Ukraine. In a year that he should have been learning about a new culture and reveling in a joyous, once-in-a-lifetime experience, he instead was rightly panicked when the war began.
“Every day, I’m waking up and the first thing that I’m doing is grabbing my phone and calling my mom as quick as possible,” Bondar told The Republic’s Jana Wiersema almost exactly one year ago, in those first unbelievable days of the war.
Bondar was able to bring his mother, Oksana, to Columbus just before Christmas. Both intend to make their lives in the United States now.
Likewise, Wiersema has written about Olesya Whitfield, owner of the Columbus restaurant Olesya’s Kitchen. Last week, Whitfield, who went to culinary school in Kyiv, donated a portion of proceeds to the Red Cross to help the people of her home country.
Earlier, Whitfield and Bondar teamed up for his senior project and collected more than $2,000 in Red Cross donations for Ukraine aid.
“Community is power,” Whitfield told Wiersema. “… I so appreciate it when the community come together and help each other.”
We do, too. That goes for the local community and the international community.