Ukraine Update: Russia is fighting for territory, Ukraine is fighting for its life

No one has really managed to give a better list of the reasons that the United States stands so strongly behind Ukraine than Secretary of State Tony Blinken did in a speech to the U.N. back in September 2022.

Defending Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity is about much more than standing up for one nation’s right to choose its own path, as fundamental as that right is. It’s also about defending an international order where no nation can redraw the borders of another by force. If we fail to defend this principle, when the Kremlin is so flagrantly violating it, we send a message to aggressors everywhere that they can ignore it, too. We put every country at risk.

Blinken’s speech was calmly delivered, but clearly heartfelt. It worked unflinchingly through a list of Russian crimes in Ukraine, dealt with Russia’s repeated nuclear threats, and looked at how Russia’s war in Ukraine affected the whole planet, including raising the cost of food everywhere. It’s a speech that deserves to be remembered. This point near the end, while certainly not original, was quite powerful:

Here’s the reality. None of us chose this war. Not the Ukrainians, who knew the crushing toll it would take. Not the United States, which warned that it was coming and worked to prevent it … One man chose this war. One man can end it. Because if Russia stops fighting, the war ends. If Ukraine stops fighting, Ukraine ends.

As Russian sources keep making clear, that’s not just true of the nation of Ukraine. It’s also true of the people of Ukraine.