It’d be cowardly to end U.S. support for Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression | Opinion

My wife and I met Babushka Olga at an orphanage near Kyiv in July 2014. She was the grandmother of our adopted son, and we have remained friends ever since.

But on Feb. 24, 2022, we tried calling her 14 times before we got through. As we talked that day, air raid sirens blared in the background, Russian missiles were landing within a few miles of her apartment building, Russian troops were racing to encircle the capital, and Russian spies in Kyiv attacked civilians in the street. Over the next few days, internet and phone service were often disrupted, and Olga said that shops and banks were closed and that she was not able to get food or the medicine she needed.

We prayed — because it seemed like all we could do.

But there was more that our country could do. During the darkest early period of the conflict, support from the U.S., Europe, and other countries around the world helped Babushka Olga and countless other civilians survive and the Ukrainian military stand up to Russian aggression, eventually forcing Russian withdrawal from Kyiv. Humanitarian and financial aid brought food and medicine to Olga’s town; allowed banks, stores and basic services to reopen; and enabled the Ukrainian government to pay salaries and Olga’s small pension. During our regular calls, Olga constantly thanked the U.S. for supporting her community and country.

We felt that our prayers had been answered.

Now, however, all those gains are at risk. Critics like Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri say that it is too expensive to continue supporting Ukraine and that we should focus on our own security and prioritize supporting other friends like Israel and Taiwan. But the reality is U.S. support for Ukraine is less than one-third of what we spent per year on wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria, adjusted for inflation, from 2007 to 2011.

And this funding, which has been subject to extensive oversight by a joint task force of inspectors general, has enabled Ukraine to remain an independent, democratic state in the middle of Europe, significantly weakened Russia’s ability to invade its NATO-member neighbors and draw the U.S. into a wider war, and likely helped to deter China from aggression toward Taiwan.

The American Enterprise Institute and Center for Strategic and International Studies have reported that support for Ukraine also directly strengthens American security by revitalizing our defense production capabilities; over 60% ($67 billion) of Ukraine funding has been spent in the U.S., and foreign purchases of U.S. weapons systems are up significantly based on their success on the battlefield. Because of the dangerous threat of increased Russian aggression, if we stop our support to Ukraine now, we will hinder our ability to protect our allies, our national interests, and our own citizens.

Vladimir Putin will not be satisfied with a peace deal ceding him some Ukrainian land, as some have recommended. He gloated over the decline in support for Ukraine during his recent year-end press conference and reiterated that his goals for the “special military operation” remain the same: “the denazification of Ukraine, its demilitarization, its neutral status” — euphemisms for the end of Ukrainian independence and the subjugation of the Ukrainian people to Moscow.

Abruptly ending support for Ukraine means wasting the courageous fight led by Ukraine, the U.S., and our allies, and ignoring the lessons of history and two world wars. As President Ronald Reagan observed: “We’ve learned that isolationism never was and never will be an acceptable response to tyrannical governments with an expansionist intent.”

Babushka Olga was born during WWII, spent most of her life under Soviet tyranny, and does not want to be ruled by Moscow again. She rightly worries for her community and her family members if continued funding for Ukraine is blocked. The United Nations has documented rape, torture, murder, and abduction of elderly people, children, and other Ukrainian civilians committed in areas controlled by Russian soldiers.

Neither does Olga wish to leave her country and become a refugee. She says that life is hard now, but that she was born in hard times, has lived in hard times before, and is willing to persist in hard times for Ukraine to be free.

Her words echo those Thomas Paine wrote at one of the darkest points of America’s struggle for freedom: “Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.”

Yet the sacrifices Olga and her fellow Ukrainian citizens are willing to keep making for their homeland — and consequently for our security and freedoms, too — will mean nothing if Congress refuses to back them now, not just with prayer but with continued material support.