Thursday, January 16, 2025
As the season of giving comes to a close, it’s important to reflect on not just all we have to be thankful for, but on those who still need our support. While there are certainly plenty of domestic issues, and Americans in need, we cannot forget the people of Ukraine, who are nearing the end of their third year of war with Russia.
The conflict, which has cost the lives of roughly 43,000 Ukrainian soldiers and over 11,000 civilians, has put on display the very real threat authoritarianism is posing to democracies all around the world today. And the people of Ukraine, who spent decades under Soviet rule and centuries under czarist rule before that, know how important their right to self-determination is, because they know what it means to live under a regime without rights.
Here in America, where we’ve had the luck and privilege to live under a democratic government for our entire history, it can be easy to brush aside these kinds of conflicts by claiming that certain areas or certain cultures are used to conflict. We hear it about the Middle East all the time: so-called “experts” who assert that the region has “always been at war,” and that one ethnic group or another “doesn’t understand democracy.”
I don’t buy it.
As our Founding Fathers knew too well, human beings are born with an innate desire, and a right, to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. While we may think of these words as uniquely American, I’ve always believed that they were written not just with our country’s population in mind, but as a fundamental fact of the human condition.
And the people of Ukraine have shown their desire for these universal rights with a determination and tenacity that has allowed this country of only 37 million to face down, and frequently defeat, a richer and larger nation with nearly five times its population. And Ukrainians are fighting not just for their own rights and sovereignty. They are the first line of defense against the deranged, ahistorical and plutocratic worldview that Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian oligarchs are so desperate to spread.
When Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky chose to stay in Kyiv in 2022, when the capital city refused to fall, and every day since, his people have had one message for Putin and the world:
We will not go quietly.
When our nation was in its infancy and fighting for its existence, we relied heavily on the support not only of foreign nations like France and Spain, but on the extraordinary efforts of individuals from around the world who recognized that our fight for independence wasn’t just a local conflict, but a global one, that of freedom vs. tyranny.
The analogy isn’t perfect. Ukraine isn’t fighting to win its independence from its mother country, but is fighting instead to maintain its sovereignty in the face of foreign aggression. But the fact remains that its people, who have seen family members’, friends’ and loved ones’ lives destroyed by the aggression of a brutish dictator, deserve not only our respect and admiration, but our help.
You may think, “But I’m only one person — what could I possibly do?” And obviously, no one person can end this conflict overnight (except maybe Rocky Balboa). But there are plenty of ways for us to do our part.
There are hundreds of international charitable groups that are on the ground in Ukraine providing humanitarian aid, from UNICEF to the Red Cross. Other organizations, such as United Help Ukraine, Nova Ukraine and Razom for Ukraine, provide medical aid to tens of thousands of people and soldiers across the country.
There are also nearly 300,000 Ukrainian refugees now living in the United States, part of a diaspora of nearly 4 million Ukrainians, predominantly women, children and seniors, who have been forced to flee their homes in the face of ruthless Russian aggression. While many of these people have been kindly fostered by Americans, Europeans and people everywhere, there are always more people in need.
To learn more about how to host Ukrainian refugees, visit SupportUkraineNow.org.
Ukrainians are fighting not just for their own right to exist, but for the rights of people around the world struggling against conquest and the threat of extermination. As the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. famously declared, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” — and we can all do more to help Ukrainians restore peace in the country they love.
Will Sheeline is an editor covering Glen Head, Locust Valley, Oyster Bay and Sea Cliff. Comments? WSheeline@liherald.com.
