The war in Ukraine is 23 months old at this point. It is rapidly being eclipsed in the American public consciousness by the multifront war that is developing across the Middle East, between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, and between the Houthis and an alliance of the United States and United Kingdom in the Red Sea. But it’s still direly important. 

My views on the war and America’s involvement haven’t changed in the 23 months. This was a war of choice by Vladimir Putin, and Russia will likely be sorry for it in the long run, even if it “wins” some territory. Ukraine is well within its rights to defend itself. But the justice of Ukraine’s self-defense does not entitle it to American support. 

But the war isn’t just about Ukraine’s territory; it’s also about its alignment and political character. And it perhaps could have been avoided if Ukraine intended to be a neutral country. The United States has occasionally treated Ukraine as if it were like Poland and could simply elect to join Western institutions and happily sever as much of its political and economic ties to Russia as possible. 

My view is that it was never so simple. In fact, the case of Ukraine is more like Northern Ireland, in which a pattern of historic settlement continually frustrates nationalist ambitions for managing full separation and territorial integrity at the same time. My primary objection to our involvement is that the goal of completely detaching Ukraine from Russia, politically and economically, is not feasible. It is treacherous and costly for the United States to pursue this in a place so far removed from our core interests. Meanwhile it will be trivially easy for Russia to disrupt, frustrate, and interrupt this project in a place on their front doorstep.

Ukrainian ultranationalists have sought to resolve the contradictions of a Western-aligned and democratic Ukraine by engaging in simultaneous campaigns of political suppression and coerced Ukrainization. It’s our implicit involvement and the incentives we’ve created for Ukraine to pursue these that leave me morally queasy. And it’s the persistent denialism of my pro-Ukraine friends on the right that leaves me speechless. 

Around the turn of the year, I came across this heartbreaking video of a Ukrainian soldier, mourning his government’s persecution of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church. 

Whenever this subject comes up, it is peremptorily dismissed. American commentators could not name a single member of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church without looking it up on Wikipedia, and they simply deem it a cat’s-paw of Russia. As far as I’ve seen, not one American commentator who is willing to countenance the broad legal suppression of this church is able to name a single crime of a single member of it. Yet our soldier above is willing to defend his church for its very contributions to the war effort. I would think that after the 20th century (or for that matter, the Spanish Inquisition), declaring every member of a religious group an inherent fifth columnist was out for supposed liberals. Apparently not. 

Then there is the unusually distasteful politics of Ukrainian ultranationalists. Earlier this month the New York Times was writing up the difficulties faced by soldiers and noting their use of call signs rather than their given names. I’ve noticed something curious about these call signs. 

The long, arduous slog to carry in ammunition and food to supply troops and to carry out the wounded was one reason Ukraine could not sustain its counteroffensive, a company commander, Adolf, 23, said.

As usual there was total incuriosity about the choice of name. It’s not the first time we’ve seen this. Last year Reuters also found a Ukrainian soldier who went by the “nom-de-guerre” “Adolf.”

What a coincidence!

And if we’re busting broken talking points, another one has to die. We have been told for 22 months that Ukrainian corruption is not a problem or impediment in our aid because most of our aid is in the form of weapons. The money spent is poured back into America’s weapons industry. But then we find out that the inspector general found over $1 billion in weapons not properly monitored. From WaPo:

The Defense Department has not properly kept tabs on more than $1 billion worth of shoulder-fired missiles, night-vision goggles, one-way attack drones and other sensitive equipment that the United States has provided to Ukraine in its fight against Russia, the Pentagon’s inspector general said in a report released

The report went on to specify that the United States wasn’t complying with its own rules for monitoring. 

As we approach the end of the war’s second year, and as we draw closer to some unsatisfactory negotiated settlement, there is going to be this surge of moralistic commentary about how Americans aren’t good and decent enough to support Ukraine sufficiently. They will be angry that even after their repeated failures, the American people don’t give up more of their stockpiles and hand over the credit card for their beautiful humanitarian dreams, even if those dreams required burning churches and letting the occasional obnoxious American die in prison. We should call this group out for what it is: the Blame America in the End crowd.