On February 24, 2022, just over a year ago, Russia launched the largest war in Europe since the end of World War II in 1945, invading Ukraine. There have been more than 200,000 casualties, in excess of 50,000 deaths, 65,000 suspected war crimes (including Russia's targeting civilians and the abduction of more than 6,000 Ukranian children taken to camps in Russia), 8 million Ukrainian refugees who have fled the country and another 5.3 million other Ukrainians who have been displaced within their own country.
Ron DeSantis, who was born 33 years after the end of World War II and nearly 49 years after the formation of NATO, regards the 21st century Russian invasion as a “territorial dispute.” (In doing so, he is echoing Tucker Carlson’s characterization of the war as a “border dispute.”)
Why do I hate Putin so much?
Has he ever called me a racist? Has he threatened to get me fired for disagreeing with him? Has he shipped every middle class job in my town to Russia? Did he manufacture a worldwide pandemic that wrecked my business and kept me indoors for two years? Is he teaching my children to embrace racial discrimination? Is he making fentanyl? Is he trying to snuff out Christianity? Does he eat dogs?
These are fair questions. And the answer to all of them is, No. -- Tucker Carlson
This month Carlson asked prospective presidential candidates for their views on Russia's war against Ukraine.
Ron DeSantis, who may well be the 2024 GOP nominee, began his reply in these words:
While the U.S. has many vital national interests – securing our borders, addressing the crisis of readiness within our military, achieving energy security and independence, and checking the economic, cultural, and military power of the Chinese Communist Party – becoming further entangled in a territorial dispute between Ukraine and Russia is not one of them. The Biden administration’s virtual “blank check” funding of this conflict for “as long as it takes,” without any defined objectives or accountability, distracts from our country’s most pressing challenges.
Nowhere in his response does the Florida governor acknowledge the security our European allies, the value of NATO in keeping the peace, or the imperative of pushing back against Russian aggression. His statement will not only comfort Putin and bring consternation to democratic Europe; it will frighten our allies in Asia and elsewhere around the globe.
It also invites Russian interference yet again in a U.S. election. If one candidate is committed to Ukraine's defense, while another is indifferent, it is abundantly clear which one Putin would favor.