How Americans feel about Russia's war against Ukraine and whether Kyiv should negotiate with China
Damon Wilson belongs to a group of American officials who have long been involved in Ukrainian affairs, understand the country and have influenced decisions regarding it, but have remained in the shadows.
In 2021 he became the President of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).
However, the conversation with Sergiy Sydorenko, a European Pravda's editor, was not about the basic tasks, but about the West's perception of Ukraine and the war, and how this perception has changed. Wilson is convinced that despite the obvious problems and the usual rhetoric about "Ukraine fatigue" in the Western media, the situation is better than it sometimes appears.
Read more in the article Ukraine is playing a sophisticated game with China, and that’s fine, but Xi has picked Russia’s side.
First of all, for me personally, for the National Endowment for Democracy, there is no such thing as Ukraine fatigue.
I think support for Ukraine has hardened. I don't buy into Ukraine fatigue.
If you have the luxury of living in the United States as an American, it's very easy to not be so impacted by what's happening around the world, or at least think that's the case.
But that's the truth in many places around the world: you're really focused on your own community.
The point ultimately is to help elected representatives in our country help lead in this discussion in their communities about why support for Ukraine is so important – not just for Ukraine, but for the future of democracy and freedom, to the future of standing up to autocrats that are trying not to just attack Ukraine, but really to undermine American leadership and engagement, to undermine our alliances, to challenge the way we operate.
And ultimately, this has a huge impact on quality of life, on security, on inflation rates in the United States because of what Russia is trying to inflict here in Ukraine.
But many Americans understand there is something bigger going on.
There's a bigger challenge in the world, and they understand that – whether it's Vladimir Putin attacking and invading in a completely unjustified war in Ukraine, whether it's the Chinese Communist Party challenging and competing in a very unfair way economically.
There's an increasing recognition, first of all, that Vladimir Putin is a thug, a bandit, a bully. American people get this.
They see through this, and they understand that we're dealing essentially with a thug on the international stage who happens to have nuclear weapons.
But they're also seeing Vladimir Putin with Kim Jong Un and North Korea, with what's happening with the leadership in Tehran, with Xi and China. And they understand this isn't good. These are pretty bad people who are all working together to protect and back each other up.
Many American policymakers have learned – that an unjust peace, appeasement, can fuel and provide the seeds of conflict in the future.
You have to create something that stops him and provides for a durable peace.
You have seen a fundamental transformation of policy inside the European Union, inside NATO – because increasingly the voices of our Baltic allies, the voices of our Nordic allies, those in Central and Eastern Europe often, who have known and experienced communism and Russian expansionism the best, have begun to impact the future of these institutions, and we see a fundamentally different approach from the EU today because of it.
As for focusing on the Global South... First of all, you’ve got to have the strongest engagement support for those who are directly behind Ukraine in its survival and its fight today. And that has been its allies – the United States, Canada, and its European partners. That makes a lot of sense, because who is standing behind Ukraine with military support and financial and economic support that’s rock-solid.
But I don't think we can be under any illusion that Beijing is going to be an even broker here. They’ve played their cards. They’ve tilted the deck towards Vladimir Putin.