Sunday, April 20, 2025
President Trump’s unprecedented attack against Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made clear what we had already suspected: That we, as a nation, have abandoned an ally in its greatest time of need.
While each new day seems to bring more potential for another outrageous action from the White House, this one was beyond our wildest imagination. Yet we should have seen it coming. First Trump had the absolute audacity to accuse Zelensky of starting the war, after Russia launched a brutal invasion. Then we learned that Trump was negotiating with Ukraine to force it to hand over untapped mineral riches in exchange for security guarantees. Finally, the Oval Office blow-up, unlike any public encounter between an American leader and a foreign counterpart, resulted in a shutdown of American assistance to Ukraine in an effort to pressure Zelensky to bend to Trump’s demands.
I have stood with Ukraine since the beginning. I was proud to take part in a well-attended and highly spirited rally here in Glen Cove at the start of the war. When my office sponsored a clothing-and-supplies drive for the victims of Putin’s tyranny, our community stepped up in ways I could not have imagined. Literally tons of supplies were shipped overseas to help those in need. Three years later, the Holocaust Museum and Tolerance Center organized another rally, at which I said the following:
“Against what some once feared would be a losing battle, Ukrainian freedom fighters have met and beaten Putin’s fascist Russian aggression. It is beyond outrageous to those of us in the free world that Donald Trump falsely accuses Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky of being a ‘dictator.’ To be sure, this is a mirror into the darkness of Trump’s soul.
“His love of Putin knows no bounds. Trump is going to betray Ukraine, and at the same time he will betray democracy. Every American of good faith knows this, and every American of good faith is disgusted by this treachery. We stood together three years ago to support our sisters and brothers in Ukraine. We must now firmly resolve to stand together in the days and years to come to demand that our nation continue its commitment to support our courageous democratic ally. Such is the will of the American people. May God continue to bless the people of Ukraine, and may God continue to bless the people of America.”
While there are many parallels in history to what’s going on, the one that comes to mind most prominently is our assistance to Great Britain in its greatest time of need during World War II. Trump humiliated Zelensky, president of a country we have supported financially and militarily since the war’s start, pointedly telling him, “You’re not in a good position. You don’t have the cards right now. With us, you start having cards.”
In 1940, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill found himself very much alone and in total desperation as his country was fighting for its very existence. At the time, he was providing the world with the last viable resistance to Hitler’s Nazi Germany. Churchill didn’t have any cards, either. Yet despite strong opposition from isolationists, President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s creative “lend-lease” policy introduced to the public the idea of lending, as opposed to selling, military supplies to Britain. He likened the plan to lending a garden hose to a neighbor so the neighbor could put out a fire in his house. Churchill was welcomed with open arms at the White House, and one of the great partnerships in world history was born.
We should be supporting Ukraine unconditionally, because it’s simply the right thing to do. Under President Biden, the U.S. carried out a “no strings attached” policy of supporting Ukraine. But that’s all changed now. Zelensky finds himself in desperation, and instead of receiving the support he and his country need right now, he is forced to kiss the ring of this man who likens himself to a king. Meanwhile, our nation’s standing as one that opposes tyrannical behavior and supports the world’s democracies finds itself shattered.
Charles Lavine represents the 13th Assembly District.
