Letter: Our foreign policy on Ukraine is misguided and dangerous
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Eli Lake inadvertently describes what is wrong with our foreign policy in his criticism of President Biden (“Who’s appeasing Putin now?”- Dec. 21).
Lake complains of Democrats’ obsession with discredited theories about President Trump’s activities in Ukraine. Republicans have their own obsessions with Hunter Biden’s involvement in a Ukrainian gas conglomerate. Both parties use Ukraine to score political points, instead of addressing legitimate Russian concerns and our strategic interests.
Russia has a long history with Ukraine dating back to the mid-800s and the Kievan Rus.
Putin would lose support in Russia if his policies failed to reflect that. Kiev, now capital of Ukraine, was capital of Russia when it was sacked by the Golden Horde in 1240.
Former Soviet Union Premier Nikita Khrushchev grew up near Donetsk, in the Ukrainian Donbas. Lake criticizes Biden for mixed messages regarding Russian activities in the Donbas region, but clarity is lacking on who really belongs there.
The Crimea offers more clarity. In 1475, Crimea became part of the Ottoman Empire. In 1783, the same year Great Britain recognized American independence, Catherine the Great annexed Crimea into Russia.
In 1954, Khrushchev oversaw its transfer, for administrative purposes, to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. When the USSR fell apart in 1991, Crimea became part of the Ukraine, despite the fact that the majority of its population is Russian.
Russia retook it in 2014, and since then Democratic and Republican leaders have vied to outdo each other in showing opposition to the takeover.
Our foreign policy regarding Ukraine and the Crimea is misguided and dangerous, and could land us in a nuclear war. Ukraine’s relationship with Russia is very different from most eastern European nations. We cannot allow our dysfunctional politics to cloud clear thinking on this issue.
Jim Jicha, Wooster
This article originally appeared on The Daily Record: Letter: Our foreign policy on Ukraine is misguided and dangerous
