Don’t Expect Ukraine to Save Democracy
The world should be rooting for its victory on the battlefield, but also be wary of those who claim to know what the consequences might be.
What comes next?
Photographer: Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty Images
There are many good reasons to support Ukraine’s attempt to regain territory seized by Russia in the last year. But, as one of Europe’s largest military operations since World War Two gets underway, we should also fear, and brace ourselves for, what a Ukrainian victory on the battlefield could bring.
Politicians and commentators claim that the Ukrainian counteroffensive will decide the fate not only of Ukraine and its European neighbors, but the entire world. For US President Joe Biden, the battle represents another test of democracy versus autocracy. Invoking D-Day and the Allied struggle against Hitler, Paul Krugman last week wrote in the New York Times that “if Ukraine’s counteroffensive succeeds, the forces of democracy will be strengthened around the world, not least in America.”