In an interview with the Israeli news outlet Haaretz published this weekend, ret. Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman once again rallied the world to the defense of Ukraine against Russian aggression. Vindman also once more condemned former President Donald Trump for providing what rather directly amounted to support for Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s ambitions. When in office, Trump was impeached the first time for his administration keeping military aid from Ukraine while pressuring the country’s government to undertake investigations that would’ve been favorable to Trump’s ambitions. Broadly, Vindman said Trump, as president, had been “really cheerleading for Vladimir Putin – in everything from taking Putin’s perspective on election interference to dividing NATO.” These developments formed an air of “hyperpolarization in the U.S. political establishment, which suggested that the United States was weak and distracted,” Vindman additionally remarked.
⚡️ Ukrainians rallied against the Russian occupation in the occupied Kherson on April 3, despite risks.
The Russian forces in the city have been dispersing such rallies and hunting down their organizers.
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) April 3, 2022
Trump just recently — amid the war in Ukraine — claimed that, when he was in power as president, he told a fellow world leader involved in NATO that the U.S. wouldn’t honor its treaty obligations associated with the alliance to protect a member country if that country was attacked by Russia but had unpaid “bills.” Russian leadership would no doubt love to hear that there’s a possibility of the U.S. simply abandoning its NATO allies to their country’s aggression — Trump has all-but-formally stated that he’ll be running again, and he could win. In the meantime, the notion that the U.S. is covering for delinquent “bills” from NATO member countries isn’t an accurate representation of the facts. Vindman, meanwhile, also identified the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol as helping provide Putin with the idea that the U.S. would be more focused on domestic issues than on violence inflicted by the Russian government in Europe.
⚡️ Ukrainian military: Russian forces attack Vasylkiv in Kyiv Oblast with missiles.
According to the Ukrainian air force command, Russian missiles hit a local educational facility on April 3. The same site has been hit before. One person is in critical condition.
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) April 3, 2022
Vindman summarized that “Trump was out there bandwagoning for Putin in a way that suggested the Republicans would not punish Putin for his aggression, so that half of the political elites in America would not go in heavy. That was Putin’s assumption.” As for the path ahead, Vindman said that the U.S. and other global interests on Ukraine’s side ought to “shed this idea that this is going to be over soon and embrace this notion that Ukraine could actually win. As shocking as that notion is, Ukraine could win. And it’s in the democratic world’s interest to have Ukraine win – because with Ukraine winning, we don’t have to all exist in this environment where ‘might makes right,’ where the strong could prey on the weak. And it really puts Iran and China on their heels.” The Biden administration has helped lead the charge for bolstering Ukraine’s defenses, through means ranging from the provision of various weapons to the country to significant economic steps like an announced ban on Russian energy imports.
⚡️ Chernihiv mayor: 70% of the city ruined by Russian attacks.
Businesses in Chernihiv are not working, and there is no revenue for the local budget, Vladyslav Atroshenko said on April 3, speaking on Ukrainian TV.
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) April 3, 2022
Vindman also criticized Israel in particular for “staying on the sidelines and not adopting a tougher approach toward Russia,” as Haaretz summarized it. The former National Security Council official added that recent developments in Ukraine are “close to genocide. Putin doesn’t believe in the fact that Ukraine is a sovereign, independent state. And the idea here is: if the free world had done more to defeat Nazism in the 1930s, we wouldn’t have had the Holocaust. We now have an opportunity to prevent genocide in Ukraine.” Scenes near Kyiv in areas recently liberated from Russian occupation are particularly devastating. In Bucha, almost two dozen apparent civilian corpses lined a single street, and before Russians left the town, they reportedly killed every male between the ages of 16 and 60 who remained. (It’s unclear whether that final detail has been confirmed by Ukrainian authorities, although it was shared by — among many others — former Ukrainian ambassador Olexander Scherba.) Some of those killed had their hands bound, and others were essentially executed while going about routine activities such as riding a bicycle. Torture was also reported there. Check out a thread Vindman posted featuring excerpts from the Haaretz article below:
“He argued that it was ‘very shortsighted to side with an authoritarian regime and sacrifice Israel and the Jewish people’s values based on some misconception of short-term interests, because that is really what’s driving Israel’s foreign policy right now,’ he said.”
— Alexander S. Vindman (@AVindman) April 3, 2022
Ultimately, what is happening in Ukraine is close to genocide. Putin doesn’t believe in Ukraine’s right to exist. If the free world had done more to defeat Nazism in the 1930s, we wouldn’t have had the Holocaust. We now have an opportunity to prevent genocide in Ukraine.
— Alexander S. Vindman (@AVindman) April 3, 2022
