Two Ways Ukraine Can Fight Back

Remember Patrick Henry on the eve of the American Revolution? History teaches us that nations unwilling to fight for their freedom generally lose it, unless a third party is willing to fight on their behalf. America and Europe have abandoned Ukraine to its fate. The Ukrainian people is being put to the ultimate test: Will they cower in their homes or dash for the closest border, or will they go out and confront the Russian Army?

Unfortunately, there are only two ways that the Ukrainians can save their country. The first is the Stalingrad option- to turn every apartment building in every city into a death trap for the Russians. The cost would be indescribable, but if anyone knows what such a struggle would mean it is the Russians, whose own heroism in the battle against the Nazis brought about one of the greatest victories in history. The result of turning Kyiv into Stalingrad would be tragic, but the Russian people are likely to draw the same conclusion they did after their experience in Afghanistan, overturning Putin and his fellow oligarchs and once again attempting to build a truly democratic country.

The result of turning Kyiv into Stalingrad would be tragic, but the Russian people are likely to draw the same conclusion they did after their experience in Afghanistan.

The other alternative for Ukraine is to adopt a strategy based on a second, non-violent but no less dangerous example of Russian heroism.  On August 19, 1991, the KGB carried out a putsch against Mikhail Gorbachev, author of the liberal policies of glasnost and perestroika. Boris Yeltsin, the mayor of Moscow, gathered thousands of courageous Russians around his official residence, known as the “White House”. In response, the KGB and the leadership of the plot ordered Soviet tanks to confront the demonstrators. One brave tank commander, Sergey Yevdokimov, ordered his men to surround the White House and to turn their tanks around in order to protect it. Demonstrators surged forward to confront the Soviet troops with flowers in their hands; the Russian soldiers refused to shoot them and the coup was defeated.

There are 40 million people in the Ukraine. If enough of them come out to confront the Russian Army with flowers many are likely to pay the ultimate price. But Putin is not Stalin, the Russian Army is not the S.S. and Russia itself is not Nazi Germany. If Ukrainians come out in the millions shouting “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death,” maybe they could still save their own freedom and possibly that of Russia as well.