How to Stop Putins Mad War and Help Ukraine

So far, as of this writing, Ukraine is holding up much better than I thought it would be.

As of writing, no major cities have fallen to the Russian invasion forces. For now, the Russians have failed to establish clear control over the air. So far, the Russian invasion forces have been hobbled by a poorly trained and ill-motivated fighting force of eighteen- and nineteen-year-old conscripts, supply problems, and ferocious resistance from the Ukrainian armed forces and the Ukrainian people as a whole. Even if the Ukrainian armed forces are exaggerating the casualties they inflicted, the Russian invasion forces have taken quite heavy losses for the first few days.

That being said, despite the setbacks, the Russians still have a serious advantage in terms of numbers, firepower, and leadership that does not care about casualties, their own or those of civilians.

The point is that despite setbacks for the Russian invaders, things can change quickly. That is the nature of war—especially in the first few days.

Even if Putin ends up conquering Ukraine, he is going to get quite a bloody nose while doing so, not even counting the casualties he will sustain trying to control Ukraine. The United States military—with far superior logistics, vastly better equipped and trained fighting forces, and (at times) a supportive population—could not control Iraq or Afghanistan.

Putin is having a hard time with the easy part.

But what can we do to stop this madness?

Support the Ukrainian Armed Forces Directly

Ukraine is not a wealthy country, it is dwarfed by its Russian neighbor, and in an effort to defeat Joe Biden in the 2020 race, Trump withheld aid from Ukraine.

Ergo, the Ukrainian armed forces are going to need some direct assistance.

Click here to donate directly to help the people of Ukraine and its armed forces fight.

Undoubtedly, the people of Ukraine and the Ukrainian armed forces have the will to fight. What they need now are the supplies and equipment to do so.

Donate to Humanitarian Efforts

War has a tendency to destroy supply chains. Across Ukraine right now are serious shortages of food, clean water, medicine, and other essential supplies.

Click here to donate to United Ukraine. This organization is helping to get essential supplies to Ukrainians and support families of soldiers killed in this war.

Follow Reliable Sources and Fight Misinformation

The Russians are not just waging war on Ukraine through invasion. They are also fighting a war of disinformation. As Americans, we must not forget just how devastating Russian disinformation campaigns can be.

As a result, it is vital that we correct friends and family members when they start to spew pro-Putin talking points, such as the lie that NATO provoked Putin or that Ukraine is a neo-Nazi-run government (despite having a Jewish president).

Follow and spread reliable information about this war, such as that from the Kyiv Independent.

Click here to donate to one of the best English-language media sources for this war, the Kyiv Independent. Follow them on social media as well.

Also follow the Ukrainian government on Twitter here for updates.

Contact Your Members of Congress to Express Your Thoughts as a Constituent

Because Ukraine is a matter of foreign policy, the federal government has jurisdiction here.

Let your members of Congress, both your representative and senator, know that you want more sanctions against Putin’s regime and more aid directed to the Ukrainian people. Make it clear that you want the United States to take in Ukrainian refugees.

Lots of them.

Click here to contact your representative.

Click here to contact your senator.

Know Some of the History

Historically, Russia has treated Ukraine the same way Britain treated Ireland and India—and how Belgium treated the Congo, France treated Vietnam, Japan treated Korea, Spain treated its American possessions, and Europe as a whole treated Africa: as a thing to be exploited without any regard for the consequences that the local inhabitants suffer. The policies in practice indicated that the lives of the locals did not matter.

This is reflected most horrifically in a crime against humanity that reached the same level as the crimes of the Third Reich (including the Holocaust), Imperial Japan’s atrocities while waging war in the Pacific, Fascist Italy’s actions while invading Ethiopia, and the way King Leopold II of Belgium ran the Congo (which was so brutal even other Europeans thought he was going too far).

The Holodomor.

This nightmare that Stalin unleashed on the people of Ukraine in the early 1930s was a famine that by conservative estimates murdered three million people, most of them ethnic Ukrainians.

People starved to death because of a combination of mass collectivization of agriculture, a bad drought, and the Soviet State directly stealing food from Ukraine to ship it abroad and feed its urban population in Russia. There are even reasonable arguments that the Holodomor was a deliberate attempt to subjugate Ukraine by starving it.

Ukraine also attempted to gain independence after the end of World War I, but it was violently stolen by the Bolsheviks.

Until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia would continue to treat Ukraine as a colony.

Understand that this is not just another front in the struggle between the free world and the authoritarian world. The Ukrainians are fighting for self-determination against an invader that has a long history of oppressing and brutalizing them. Being anti-colonialism and anti-imperialism means supporting the people of Ukraine and making no excuses for Putin’s regime.

Boycott, Disinvest, and Sanction Russia

It has only been days since Russia invaded Ukraine, and the invaders are already committing war crimes.

Russia’s invasion itself is illegal and immoral. Add to that list deliberately targeting civilian residential areas, hospitals, ambulances, and kindergartens.

Putin has also made it clear he plans to murder any Ukrainian with the gall to resist an invader.

Inside Russia, Putin’s regime acts as an authoritarian and reactionary state pushing highly destructive ideas and policies, such as Russia being entitled to the land it held as an empire, brutal anti-LGBT policies, and using open murder as a policy against dissidents.

In addition, Putin’s regime has fueled instability across the free world via supporting far-right and -left movements, not to mention other destructive movements. These include Brexit, the Bernie campaign, the Trump administration, and most recently, the Canadian trucker blockade/terrorist attack.

Look into a piece of required reading called Foundations of Geopolitics by Aleksandr Dugin. If I can find an English translation of this text online without paying for it, it may help me understand the Russian State better. It is a lot like Mein Kampf in how it seemingly guides Putin.

Putin’s regime needs to be brought down not just for the sake of Ukraine (plus all of Eastern Europe and Central Asia) but for the whole world. He is a man who is comfortable with mass murder and oppression with nuclear weapons.

Using military force to remove Putin from power contains too many risks of a nuclear war, so I have another idea, an idea others produced that I would like to spread.

Boycott Russian-based goods and services.

Disinvest from Kremlin-backed and -based companies and organizations.

Sanction all Russian government organizations and Russian oligarchs. 

All of the above must include Russian oil and other fossil fuels. 

The goal here is to strangle and isolate Putin’s system so it can no longer function. In addition, genuine reform must come to Russia so it no longer acts like an imperialist and ethnonationalist power.

This idea takes cues from anti-apartheid activists of the 1970s and 1980s and, strangely enough, the Boycott, Disinvest, and Sanctions (BDS) movement targeting Israel.

Understand the Reach

The tentacles of Putin’s regime reach all over the world. Despite leading an economy half the size of California, Putin has shown his talent via his ability to hit our weak spots and exploit them.

His enablers at home must be crushed no matter who they are.

Hopefully, Ukraine is still standing by the time this reaches you all.

Slava Ukraini!