The sentiments expressed in the article for Foreign Affairs this week by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba are very understandable given the invasion, the destruction and the atrocities that Ukraine has suffered — but they must not become the basis for Western strategy.
Fury, however righteous, is not a good shaper of policy. Moreover, unlike Ukrainians, U.S. and Western officials and analysts are not themselves under the same kind of fire or threat. They have therefore no excuse for allowing their judgment to be clouded by emotion. Their professional duty to their own countries mandates keeping cool heads and strong nerves.
Kuleba seeks to identify the West with purely Ukrainian goals, irrespective of the wider costs to humanity. Parts of his article read very much as if American public relations professionals crafted the language. But the primary duty of American citizens is to their own country. Läs artikel