Support for Ukraine a priceless investment

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 12/01/2023 (666 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

One ally stared down an almost daily bombardment from the skies and the threat of invasion by a ruthless dictator. Another ally stares down an almost daily bombardment from the skies and an invasion launched by another ruthless dictator.

Eight decades separate Great Britain’s fight for survival during the Second World War in 1940 and 1941 and Ukraine’s defence against Russian invaders who have killed thousands of Ukrainian civilians and currently occupy 7.2 per cent of its territory.

British people hid in bomb shelters and subway stations during the Battle of Britain to avoid bombs dropped by the Luftwaffe that set neighbourhoods in London and other cities aflame.

Ukrainians have been doing the same since Russia began firing missiles at Kyiv, Kharkiv and other cities in Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. Just as British people did in the 1940s, they’ve emerged after aerial attacks cease to find their homes destroyed and family and friends killed.

Western nations, including Canada and other members of the NATO alliance, have sent billions of dollars in military, civilian and financial support to Ukraine and have imposed economic sanctions against Russia. The latest came Tuesday when Canada announced it will donate a $400-million NASAMS anti-missile battery to Ukraine, augmenting similar anti-missile defence systems the U.S. and Germany are sending.

Other countries, including Canada, are shipping light tanks, combat vehicles, larger artillery pieces and ammunition to help bolster Ukraine’s ground forces.

The staggering cost of this aid raises eyebrows, as well as objections from those who believe funds committed to Ukraine could be spent better at home — a sentiment that also hearkens back to the Second World War. Canada was quick to join the Second World War in 1939, though there were those, particularly in Quebec, who opposed to sending Canadian troops to fight a foreign war.

Those arguments were amplified in the U.S., where isolationists pressured politicians, including president Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who was forced to balance his belief the Nazis must be stopped with maintaining his country’s neutral status and his own grip on power.

His solution was the Lend-Lease Act, which allowed the U.S. to give military goods, food and oil to its allies because such assistance was essential to the defence of the U.S. Mr. Roosevelt likened it to lending a neighbour a garden hose if their house caught on fire, rather than charging him for it first, knowing he would get the hose back when the neighbour was finished with it.

More than US$50.1 billion of goods were shipped between 1941 and 1945, and that didn’t include what the U.S. spent when it entered the war after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. Much of the debt was forgiven.

That aid wasn’t charity then, nor is supplying military hardware and funds to Ukraine charity today, as Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s president, said during a speech to a joint session of Congress just before Christmas.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, along with U.S. President Joe Biden, has promised to continue with aid to Ukraine, but there is no guarantee that support will continue into the future.

Mr. Trudeau heads a government that depends on other parties’ support to pass laws and remain in power. A divided U.S. Congress that took almost a week to decide on a new Republican House speaker is a threat to American military aid, despite Mr. Zelenskyy’s eloquent plea.

Defending and bolstering democracy in Ukraine and ensuring continued stability throughout Europe are the payoff for the billions Canada, U.S. and other nations have provided.

Halting that support now would squander a priceless investment.

» Winnipeg Free Press