Euroviews. Two years on, can we truly afford to forget Ukraine?

Two years ago, Russia invaded Ukraine. It anticipated rapidly overthrowing the Ukrainian government, but the brave Ukrainians had other ideas. 

Russia subsequently decided that it would rather destroy the country than allow it to exist independently. 

Since then, it has launched thousands of missiles, drones, and ballistic rockets at civilian infrastructure. It has starved, beaten, castrated, and murdered Ukrainian prisoners of war. 

In places like Bucha and elsewhere, it has tortured, raped, and murdered Ukrainian citizens.

Marking the second anniversary, Ukraine’s new commander-in-chief, General Oleksandr Syrsky, said: “When thousands of columns of Russian invaders moved from all directions into Ukraine, when thousands of rockets and bombs fell in our land, no one in the world believed that we would stand. No one believed, but Ukraine did.” 

For many in the West though, memories are short and others simply quickly tire of conflict, even if this means surrendering to tyrants like Russia's Vladimir Putin. 

The recent murder of the dissident Alexei Navalny is a reminder of the evil we are facing, but unless there is a serious course correction, this is likely to be only a brief shot in the arm for those demanding greater Western support of the embattled country.

In the United States, the Republican House speaker Mike Johnson refuses to take the Senate-approved $95 billion (€86.8bn) bill, most of which is meant to assist Ukraine, to the House, where it would probably pass. 

His excuse? “The mandate of national-security supplemental legislation was to secure America’s own border before sending additional foreign aid. Now, in the absence of having received any single border policy change from the Senate, the House will have to