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1986
On this day in 1986, essentially due to Soviet carelessness and incompetence, the worst nuclear accident in history took place at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Station in Ukraine.
Worse still was the way Mikhail Gorbachev handled the disaster, first denying it had happened, then minimizing the dimensions of the crisis, then ordering the Communist leadership in Ukraine to have the public continue with their lives as if nothing had happened, refusing to allow the ordinary people of Ukraine to leave the Republic, denying aid from the west and more.
My article on the handling of Chornobyl was published in National Review on April 26, 2011, and can be accessed here: Remembering the Soviet Response to Chornobyl
Many today do not use or subscribe to the word “evil” in its full meaning (profoundly immoral and wicked), but Gorbachev’s, the Kremlin’s, the “center’s” response to the Chornobyl disaster was Evil.
TODAY
The Chornobyl disaster started with an accident. It was not planned. Spreading deadly radiation across Ukraine and much of Europe had not been Soviet policy.
What Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin is doing in Ukraine is his state policy, it is intentional. It is Evil.
He is deliberately and indiscriminately killing thousands with the objective of destroying Ukraine, the Ukrainian people, their culture, and their history.
Putin has placed no boundaries around what his barbaric forces can and will do – murder, rape, abduction of children and destruction of anything and everything of consequence with no regard for human life or moral values.
Putin and his war are Evil.
We, the American public have seen horrible photographs but in reality, we have not been exposed to the most gross, despicable realities of Putin’s war.
Putin will not stop his criminal aggression unless he is stopped. His evil must be stopped and as helpful as what Congress and the President did this week, it will not be enough.
The people of Ukraine can win but they are going to need continued support from the United States and all of the west.
As is stated in the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation’s Friends of Ukraine Network 2024 Recommendation for U.S. Assistance to Ukraine, “The nature of the Putin regime, its disregard for international law, its brutal suppression of all dissent, its whitewashing and rewriting of Russian history, plus Putin’s obsession with subjecting his neighbors and reconstituting the Russian Empire – all these factors make peaceful coexistence difficult, if not impossible, to conceive in the near and medium term…
It will be essential for Allied leaders to explain to their citizens what is at stake and why even a Ukrainian victory will not change the nature of Putin’s Russia and the need for Russia to be seen and treated as a threat.”
We Americans, our government, and the West must see this evil for what it is and act accordingly.
ROBERT MCCONNELL
Co-Founder, U.S.-Ukraine Foundation
Director of External Affairs, Friends of Ukraine Network
The views expressed here are Mr. McConnell’s and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation or the Friends of Ukraine Network (FOUN)
Watch our related webinars
FOUN’s 2024 PRIORITY RECOMMENDATIONS FOR U.S. ASSISTANCE TO UKRAINE are now available in printed form. Everything recommended has been subject to webinars, speeches, meetings, interviews, op-eds, and more, and the text (minus the formatting for publication) was delivered to some on Capitol Hill weeks ago.