Enough is Enough
10 Points of Conscience and Conviction on Ukraine
I didn’t set out to be a freelance writer. I knew I wanted to do more writing, but I only jumped in and started publishing after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. I remember sitting at my computer just days after the war began and writing what would become, months later, my first published piece. I put that first draft away and didn’t return to it for some time, but the feelings and opinions—no, convictions—welled up within me until I couldn’t keep them inside anymore. I didn’t so much write that piece as let it out. I’ve gone on to publish numerous articles over the past couple years, but I haven’t had that same feeling I did in the early days of the war, and of my writing career—that feeling that I just need to write, or I’ll burst—until now.
The relationship between the US, Ukraine, and Russia has changed rapidly over the past month. We’ve gone from the US being a staunch, if internally conflicted, ally of Ukraine to our President accusing Ukraine of starting the war and calling the Ukrainian President a dictator, to voting with Russia and North Korea (among others) in the UN General Assembly, to a public spat between Trump and Zelensky and the pause of US military aid to Ukraine. Thus far, I’ve refrained from writing anything long-form about these developments, partly because I have been processing it all, and partly because I wasn’t sure I had anything new to add to the conversation. I’m still not sure I have anything to say that others have not already said, but I am fed up with the half-truths and outright lies that are taking up so much of our national discourse, and I think it is important for as many people as possible to speak up in defense of the truth. So, I want to go on the record with ten convictions about Ukraine. Will these change anyone’s mind? Probably not. But sometimes it’s important to tell the truth, or at least our best attempt to grasp the truth, even when it seems like no one is listening. The points below are not meant to be fully developed arguments, but I have referenced my own writing and that of others where I think further reading would be helpful.
1) Ukraine is the good guy in this fight. Putin’s Russia is the bad guy. It’s pretty simple. No, Ukraine is not perfect. Zelensky isn’t a saint. Corruption is a problem in Ukraine—just ask any Ukrainian. But how on earth have we ended up in a place where our President is claiming that Ukraine started the war? How is the country that invaded a sovereign nation, tried to topple its government, has raped, pillaged, and committed countless other war crimes, and has nearly plunged the world into nuclear war now the hero of this story? Blaming Ukraine for the war is like blaming the woman wearing a diamond necklace when she gets mugged. Did Ukraine’s actions cause the invasion? Absolutely, in the sense that Ukrainians chose to look West, toward freedom and democracy, and Putin couldn’t stand that. Does that make Russia’s invasion their fault? Do I really need to explain that? For about two seconds after the war started, it seemed everyone except the fringiest on the right and left grasped this. Those were the days. (For a more detailed version of my thoughts on this point, read the Public Discourse piece I published a couple years ago.)
2) I am not anti-Russia. I am anti-Putin. When I say Putin’s Russia is the bad guy in this fight, I’m not vilifying all Russians. There’s a trope among conservatives that support for Ukraine is just anti-Russian cancel culture (a view that Putin has been all too happy to encourage). Perhaps this is true for some people, and I don’t condone that. I spent a summer in Russia, and I love the Russian people, Russian culture, and the Russian language. Some of my dearest friends are Russian. This is one of the reasons I am so adamantly opposed to Putin and his government. He is not just destroying Ukraine and the world order. He is destroying Russia. Acknowledging and opposing the grave evils of the Putin regime (dictatorship, suppression of civil liberties, assassinations, war crimes, the list goes on) isn’t Russophobic. It’s the best way to love Russia.
3) I want peace for Ukraine. Ukrainians want peace. Heck, most Russians even want peace of some sort. Putin does not. Are there some corrupt Ukrainians who have enriched themselves off this war and want to see it go on forever? Maybe. But the vast majority of Ukrainians—including those who want to keep fighting—have suffered unimaginably and desperately desire peace. (Read Archbishop Borys Gudziak’s moving essay on this point here.) The idea, which has gained traction on the MAGA right, that Putin wants peace and is just being held back by Ukraine (or Zelenksy, or whoever you want to blame) is frankly insulting to the Ukrainians who have fought, suffered, and died. Putin did not need to start this war. He could have stopped it at any time. He has shown no signs of willingness to concede his war aims in Ukraine—aims that include extinguishing Ukrainian nationhood and culture (arguably genocide) and establishing a modern version of the Russian/Soviet Empire. He is willing to capitalize on an American presidential administration that seems willing to give him what he has wanted all along, and he may be willing to agree to a ceasefire that gives Russia time to regroup and finish the job later. As the Ukrainian Greek Catholic bishops have articulated so well, however, a peace worthy of the name must be just. A “ceasefire” that just enables Putin and throws Ukraine under the bus is not peace. Ukrainians understand this. Clearly, some Americans do not.
4) A lot of what Americans hear about Ukraine is just Russian propaganda. Ukraine is not a country (or a government) of Nazis. The Ukrainian government was not conducting a genocide against Russia speakers in the east. Ukraine is not anti-Christian. Zelenksy is not a dictator. The war is not just a plot to fleece the US. When you hear the opposite, stop and think. Many of these lies have a grain of truth that makes them seem more believable to Americans who don’t know much about Ukraine. Does Ukraine have some neo-Nazis on the fringe? Yes, as does America. Sure, it makes sense for Ukrainians to be vigilant that Zelensky does not indefinitely postpone elections or sideline his opponents. Are there reasonable arguments against Ukraine’s restrictions on the Moscow-affiliated Orthodox Church? I think so. None of this justifies or validates the propaganda that comes out of the Kremlin and is being amplified on the MAGA right. A good rule of thumb is to ask yourself if the particular accusation is actually more true of Putin or Russia. Russia is arguably conducting a genocide against Ukraine. Putin’s Russia is persecuting non-Russian Orthodox Christians, both at home and in Ukraine, and is weaponizing the Russian Orthodox Church. Putin is a dictator who literally has his opponents assassinated. If the people making claims about Ukraine are ignoring or minimizing these facts about Russia, it’s usually a pretty good indication that they don’t have their facts straight about Ukraine.
5) I support Ukraine, and I believe supporting Ukraine means listening to the Ukraine people and respecting their right, as a sovereign people, to chart their own course. I certainly do not believe the United States should pressure Ukraine to continue fighting or use it as a proxy, but I also don’t think this is what has happened. When the world expected them to capitulate, Ukrainians chose to heroically resist Russia’s invasion, and they have continued to do so. Earlier in the war, polls showed that Ukrainians overwhelmingly opposed immediate negotiations. Recent indications are more mixed, with at least one poll showing that a majority of Ukrainians now favor a negotiated end to the war as soon as possible. This does not mean that Ukrainians no longer value their freedom or that they would be happy with just any negotiated peace settlement. The US strategy should be to help Ukrainians resist Russia’s aggression to the extent possible and to do everything we can to secure a just peace and secure future for them without starting World War III or triggering nuclear Armageddon.
6) American and Ukrainian interests may not be identical, but they are inextricably intertwined. Both the US and Ukraine suffer if Russia wins this war. It should be obvious why Ukraine suffers (although, again, it seems that some people here in the land of the free don’t understand why losing their freedom and sovereignty would be so bad for Ukrainians). I understand that for many people, it is not as obvious why the US has a strategic interest in Ukraine’s fight. Trump’s former Ambassador to Russia, John Sullivan, puts it very well in his book Midnight to Moscow, which I highly recommend. (You can read my review of it here to get the key points.) Even beyond purely strategic considerations, however, I believe that the United States has a moral interest in supporting Ukraine. Put simply, when Ukrainians are fighting and dying because they chose to belong to “the free world,” a world the US has largely created, how can we stand by? When Putin has declared that this is a war against NATO and the US-led West, how can we claim this is not our fight? An America that has lost its sense of moral responsibility in international affairs will quickly lose the right to call itself the land of the free. (I elaborated on this point in my essay for American Purpose, “Competing for Ukraine.”)
7) I am not, and never have been, implacably opposed to negotiating with Russia. I am skeptical that negotiations will lead anywhere good. I understand why so many Americans are eager to see a negotiated end to this war ASAP. And given that it seems a majority of Ukrainians want to pursue negotiations, I think it’s fair to say the Ukrainian government should respect that desire, and the US should be supportive of that effort. However, I seriously doubt that Putin is willing to make any meaningful concessions. (Again, see Amb. Sullivan’s Midnight in Moscow for a compelling argument on this.) Putin has made it clear that he wants to reconstitute the Soviet/Russian empire, that he thinks Ukraine is a fake country run by Nazis, and that America is Russia’s mortal enemy. It is both dangerous and foolish to walk into negotiations assuming that the Russians are engaging in a good faith effort to end this war on terms that are even half-way acceptable to the US or Ukraine. Unfortunately, the Trump administration seems to be doing just that. I agree with this piece from Fred Kempe at the Atlantic Council, and the Foreign Affairs piece he quotes, that we need to enter negotiations clearly understanding Putin’s real aims and the likelihood that negotiations will fail.
8) I’m heartbroken by the anti-Ukraine trend among conservatives. I’m not surprised. I remember saying to a friend the night after Russia’s invasion that I feared conservatives would be to Ukraine what liberals were to 9/11. Soon after 9/11, some voices on the left were already engaging in a strange game of moral Twister, blaming America and excusing the terrorists’ actions. I saw signs of a similar tendency among fellow conservatives early on, as some either outright defended Putin or excused his actions as the inevitable result of our own failures. These voices remained on the fringes for a while, and I was hopeful that the shock of Russia’s brutal invasion would give most Americans a firm grip on reality. As it turns out, some conservatives can self-flagellate just as well as the woke leftists they deride as anti-American. (I wrote more here about how I think many conservatives lost their way on Ukraine. I also highly recommend this piece from Douglass Murray at The Free Press.)
9) Taken together, I believe the current trajectory of US policy on Ukraine is strategically disastrous and morally indefensible. Trying to predict Trump’s next move or figure out his intentions is an exercise in futility. Maybe he thinks he has a master plan, and the events of the past few weeks are just the opening chess moves that will ultimately allow him to “check mate” Russia. Even if that turns out to be the case, I think his administration’s actions toward Ukraine are indefensible. Strategically, there is no universe in which projecting weakness vis a vis Russia is in America’s interest, and Trump of all people knows that. Perhaps he thinks repeating Kremlin propaganda, publicly berating Ukraine’s president, and withdrawing US military support is all just part of making a deal, but Putin and his allies will view all this as a sign that the US can be bullied into submission. Morally, our treatment of Ukraine over the past few weeks has been abhorrent. UN General Assembly votes are notoriously meaningless in the sense that they are non-binding, but when one of Ukraine’s key allies suddenly sides with Russia (not to mention North Korea) against a resolution condemning Russia’s aggression, that means something. We couldn’t even muster moral support for the Ukrainians who are suffering and dying for independence, democracy, and freedom. It’s a non-binding resolution, for goodness’ sake. Even China merely abstained, rather than siding with Russia. Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed that the US wanted to avoid antagonizing either side while we’re pursuing negotiations. Please. Did you really think siding with Russia wouldn’t antagonize Ukraine? Clearly we are only interested in placating one party to this conflict. If we were serious about staying above the fray, we would have abstained from voting. This is but one example of the moral bankruptcy of this administration’s Ukraine policy, but you get the point. For more on this topic (from a Christian perspective), I recommend this piece at Providence.
10) There’s room for reasonable disagreement on Ukraine policy among conservatives. There should be no room for moral ambiguity. I vehemently disagree with plenty of conservative thinkers I respect when it comes to Ukraine policy, and I recognize that to some extent, this kind of disagreement is necessary and healthy within a political movement. What I find so abhorrent is the apathy (“I don’t care what happens to Ukraine”), willful ignorance, and outright hostility toward Ukraine that I see among many in the MAGA camp. This is particularly upsetting and saddening when coming from Christians. I know I’m being tough on conservatives here, so just to be clear, I consider myself a conservative. When Trump and MAGA get something right, I support them; when I think they’re wrong, my support ends there. I am firmly committed to what I believe are conservative values. This is part of the reason I feel so strongly that we must have moral clarity on Ukraine. A conservative movement that can’t tell the difference between good and evil is both pointless and dangerous. It most certainly will not make American great again.
Most importantly, let us pray for Ukraine, for America, and for the world.
God bless America. Glory to Ukraine. Glory to God.