As the grim anniversary approaches of the tragic Russian invasion of Ukraine, mental health almost requires numbness. We train our eyes to flash quickly past disturbing headlines, such as, “Ukraine Under New Missile Barrage as Russia Warns West about Tank Pledges.” After all, upsetting events abound right here in the US..
But some questions about this disastrous war seem urgent. For me, these questions boil down essentially to this startling uncertainty: what actually are our government’s aims in Ukraine, and how are they being justified by our leaders?
Unfortunately, clarity is hard to come by. President Biden and his administration maintain that their aim is solely to enable Ukraine to defend itself against a brutal invasion — surely a noble goal. The purpose, these leaders say, of allocating over $100 billion and pouring increasingly controversial weapons into Ukraine has been to put our ally in a strong position for peace negotiations.
This fall, however, Ukraine was “winning,” by many accounts, having retaken key cities and pushed the Russian army back. Why, then, didn’t the U.S. and NATO use this “inflection point” to press for a cease fire and serious peace negotiations? Why, instead, has the U.S. only very recently pulled back from its support of the Ukrainian goal of retaking Crimea, an essential part of Russia for most of the past 300 years? Why have NATO countries pressured Germany to abandon its post-World-War-II stance of military restraint and to send its Leopard tanks into battle against Russia — a move that is clearly awakening painful memories in both nations of the historic Soviet battles against the Nazis in which some 20 million Russians died?
Current events within Ukraine also raise some thorny questions. After Ukrainian journalist Yurii Nikolov broke a story about massive corruption in the Ukrainian defense department, four deputy ministers and five regional governors have resigned or been fired. Ukrainian democratic structures also appear increasingly sketchy. Even before the war, President Zelensky had banned most tv stations; now he has also banned 11 political parties and has rolled back important labor protections. Why is the U.S. willing to escalate support under these conditions?
These questions bring us back to where we started: what, truly, ARE our government’s aims? Only to support a vulnerable ally? Or — as Biden and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin both said openly back in the spring — to “weaken Russia” and unseat Putin? I feel I must demand a response from our leaders. I need them to answer, also, how many innocent lives these goals are worth, and exactly how far they are willing to push the risk of nuclear Armageddon.
Chris Mayfield is a retired public school teacher who taught for three decades in Mississippi, Louisiana, and North Carolina, including three years at Northwood High School. She lives in Chatham County.