Timothy Snyder names weak link in Russia’s war against Ukraine

Currently, the United States is the weak link in Russia’s war against Ukraine, stated Timothy Snyder, an American historian specializing in the history of Central and Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, and the Holocaust, in an interview for MSNBC.

“We are now the weak link. The Ukrainians are showing that they can do an awful lot with the little that we have given them. Right now, we are giving them nothing. We should be thinking of this as a long war, as a hard war, as a war where the Ukrainians are doing the suffering for us, as the war, in which the Ukrainians are maintaining peace elsewhere for us, as a war, in which we should be thanking them, and as a war, in which we should be doing the things that we can do. All we have to do is supply them with what they need, and then we, and they, and everyone else will reap the benefits,” Snyder said. 

The historian also responded to the powerful speech by the Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Radosław Sikorski, during the debates at the UN Security Council, where the Polish diplomat systematically refuted statements by his Russian counterpart regarding the history of Russia.

“In Putin’s Russia, those are the facts that are avoided. The vision of the past that Putin is trying to supply is one, in which Russia is simultaneously never defeated and nevertheless always a victim,” Snyder said.

The historian says the only moments when Russia made good policy choices were after its defeats. “After defeat in Crimea, after defeat against Japan. These are the moments when it seemed like something in Russia could change. So we should remember that Russia has been defeated. But also take courage in the thought that Russia ought to be defeated, also for the good of Russians,” Snyder said.