JD Vance’s dismissive attitude toward Ukraine is an insult to 70,000 Ukrainian Americans in Ohio

Overwhelming relief. Not exaltation. That’s how a leading Ukrainian American in Ohio reacted after the U.S. House finally passed a foreign aid bill for Ukraine last weekend. Out of Ohio’s 14-member congressional delegation, only three Republicans; Reps. Jim Jordan, Troy Balderson, and Warren Davidson voted against the funding.  

“I’m grateful for the bipartisan support we got,” said Dr. George Jaskiw, vice president of the United Ukrainian Organizations of Ohio, a nonpartisan coalition of more than 50 groups that represent the state’s large Ukrainian population. “We’re hoping this (approval by 79% of the Ohio delegation) is viewed and processed by some of our representatives who are opposed to aid to Ukraine. They may be out of step with their state.”

Jaskiw, a psychiatrist and professor at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, whose parents fled Ukraine during World War II, was adamant that extending a critical lifeline to an ally being pummeled by an overpowering Russian military “is not a parochial issue for Ohio or the Ukraine American diaspora. This is an existential issue for the United States.”

“Our security and economic prosperity depend on a world where rules are respected. Having a world where an aggressor, flaunting nuclear weapons, can get their way and violate borders and treaties is a dangerous one that threatens us directly,” he said. In February, a bipartisan majority in the U.S. Senate advanced a foreign aid package for Ukraine that mirrored the House bill approved Saturday. Ohio’s junior senator opposed it.

Curiously, J.D. Vance has been dismissive of Ukraine’s plight ever since Russian tanks rolled over its borders to wage an unprovoked war. His superheated (Putinesque?) aversion to aiding the besieged country has only grown since the Kremlin invasion. He attracts notoriety as “perhaps the Senate’s most vocal critic” of Ukraine assistance. But why? 

Politico reported that Vance waded into a group of House Republicans to urge defeat of their Ukraine aid measure. His justifications for essentially greenlighting the authoritarian annihilation of the fledgling democracy range from specious to baseless with a smattering of disinformation. 

“We simply have no idea where a lot of our money to Ukraine has gone,” he (falsely) tweeted in January. “That has been a consistent complaint of his,” sighed Jaskiw, “despite overwhelming evidence from our IG (Inspector General) which has followed the aid to Ukraine, especially military aid, to a greater degree than in any other military support in our history.” Moreover, he noted, “there is no evidence of gross mismanagement or misallocation that we found and we, as a community in Ohio, welcome this kind of diligence and confirmation that the aid is going to its designated place.” 

“Vance also claims that Russia will stop at the borders of whatever land they hold now. But our colleagues in the EU and NATO and our own defense agencies tell us Russia has built up a war machine” with 30% to 40% of its government budget committed to production of armaments. Putin will keep moving, Jaskiw predicted. “And at some point in the near future, the next five or ten years, in all likelihood we’ll be faced with having to protect our NATO allies in the Baltics and or in Poland.”

“Is it more expedient for us as Americans to fund Ukraine to help it resist and degrade the Russian military or, in a relatively short time, face a significant risk of committing our women and men to fight on the plains of Europe?” That’s a question Vance doesn’t want to answer, said Jaskiw, even though the consensus of our intelligence and defense experts is “that Russia presents a clear and present danger to the free world and us.” 

“We can either support Ukraine today or pay a much higher price in the future.”

The Ukrainian American leader said Vance’s single-minded enmity toward Ukraine has raised serious concern among many of the estimated 70,000 Ukrainian Americans in Ohio. Why does his antagonism to arming Ukraine run so deep? Why is it so persistent? Why is it so relentless?

Jaskiw said his organization has tried repeatedly to have a frank discussion with Vance to no avail. It was not lost on his community that their senator brushed off a key meeting with Ukraine’s president in Munich recently because, he said, “I didn’t think I would learn anything new.” His South Carolina Republican colleague, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, begged to differ on Sunday. He challenged Vance to visit Ukraine and “quit talking about things you don’t know anything about.” 

Graham referred to a New York Times op-ed Vance wrote that argued another aid package to Ukraine won’t change the course of the war because Ukraine doesn’t have the manpower to win the war and needs more than the U.S. can provide. Graham, the longtime foreign policy hawk who just returned from Ukraine, called Vance’s assertions “garbage” and suggested he visit the country before he speaks on the issue.

Unlikely. A puzzlement to his constituents. “If the Russian Federation takes over Ukraine there will be a genocidal outcome,” Jaskiw concluded. “Their goal is eliminationist. They’ve stated that openly. The people of Ukraine will keep fighting, but they realize without American support their prospects are going to be very, very grave.” For now, at least, there is overwhelming relief on the battlefield. 

And gratitude for those who stood on the right side of history.