Stand with Ukraine

This week, Vladimir Putin began his unprovoked campaign to take over Ukraine. After a series of false flag operations and disinformation, President Putin unilaterally announced the Ukrainian provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk as independent and moved Russian troops into the areas. He then launched a full-scale ground invasion he deemed “special military operations,” chillingly calling the invasion a “demilitarization and denazification” of the country. Putin says he has every intention of “decapitating” the Ukrainian government and installing his own regime. The situation continues to develop, but death and destruction are guaranteed as civilians are caught in the crossfire of Putin’s evil ambition and Ukraine’s righteous fight to retain its independence. 

The Ukrainian people are strong and will go to battle for their homeland. There are reports of police distributing weapons to veterans and civilians so that citizens can defend their homes on the streets. We must support them by responding forcefully on the international stage. President Biden announced additional sanctions on Russia after the invasion, freezing Russian assets in the U.S., sanctioning many Russian elites, and instituting an export ban on technology. While it’s a good start, we must respond with stronger sanctions such as ending oil imports from Russia to ensure Russia feels pain quickly and working with our EU allies to ban Russia’s financial institutions from using SWIFT.

Russia’s stock market has already fallen by half over the possibility of international sanctions. Additional sanctions are possible outside of what President Biden announced this week. A long-term solution to the world being held hostage by villains like Vladimir Putin is to move away from Russian energy supplies. The U.S. alone currently imports over a half a million barrels of oil from Russia per day. Instead, we should unleash the power of U.S. energy independence and support our allies in their energy exploration and generation activities. We should use our vast resources and technology to crush Putin’s economy. America has abundant energy and mineral deposits that need to be developed now, leaving the modern day Soviet dictator stuck in the past with no outside income to fund his war machine. Though those actions won’t stop Putin today, they could deter him and other authoritarian dictators from such actions in the future. Americans – from our Founding Fathers to our Greatest Generation to those born today – have never and will never bow to oppressors or shirk from the responsibility to protect freedom-loving people from despots and war criminals.  

China and Iran are closely watching the way the United States and our allies handle this situation. China has already capitalized on the chaos by flying military aircrafts into Taiwanese airspace. The West must project strength and support the defense of our allies, unified with NATO, the European Union, and dozens of other nations across the globe. Join me in praying for the Ukrainian people as they fight to maintain their freedom.