What is at stake in Ukraine
Russia wants to impose its brutal vision on its neighbour. That is everybody’s business
THE WAR is first of all about the fate of 44m Ukrainians. But in the shattered ruins of Mariupol and Kharkiv a worldview is also at stake. Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine to force it to renounce the West and to submit to the Kremlin. He believes that big countries should be free to dominate smaller ones. Ukraine counters that it will choose its own allies. With Western backing, it is affirming the universal principle that all countries are sovereign. Whoever prevails on the battlefield will win a fundamental argument about how the world should work.
This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition under the headline “Get off the fence”
From the April 16th 2022 edition
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