Stephen J. Benham: Who will speak for Ukraine victims if we do not?

I am an American without any Ukrainian heritage. So I have no “ethnic” bias at play here. What I write below is based on 28 years of experience working in Ukraine.

I have made 60 trips to the region since 1997, including four since the war began. I have visited every oblast (region) in the country except Luhansk. My total time in country exceeds four years. I speak Ukrainian fluently and Russian adequately. My expertise is on cultural, sociological, educational and religious issues in Ukraine.

I know the Ukrainian people very well. I know that they value freedom, family, faith, democracy, art and music, humor, poetry and philosophy. They have unbelievable respect for the value of human life and dignity. They are diverse, direct and hospitable all at once.

As is now crystal clear it is President Donald Trump’s strategy to “end” the war in Ukraine by enabling Russia to wipe entire Ukrainian cities off the map and pound Ukraine into utter humiliation and complete surrender.

What is just, moral and right does not seem to factor into Trump’s equation for so-called peace. To me, he clearly places no value on human life, democracy, self-determination, the rule of law, respect for international treaties or standing for justice.

Instead, he is suffocating and strangling the Ukrainian people into submission while temporarily cutting off military aid, intelligence sharing, satellite access, defunding reconstruction efforts and humanitarian aid programs for the victims of this war.

Trump’s approach to ending this war aligns more with Putin than with any Western democratic principles or values. That should say something.

And don’t blame this on anyone other than Trump. These are solely his decisions. Yes, President Joe Biden should have done more, as should have his predecessors, including Trump version 1. Trump was behind the multiple-month Republican delay in approving Ukrainian support in 2023-24. Do not forget that.

This war may temporarily stop, and some people may breathe a sigh of relief thinking World War III has been avoided. Unfortunately, Vladimir Putin doesn’t think that way. Russia’s president simply will wait and rearm, ready to strike again. Look at every conflict Russia and Putin have started in the last two decades.

All you have done is kick the can down the road so your children and grandchildren will have to fight an even worse war.

In the meantime people are massacred, lives are destroyed, families are torn apart and entire towns and villages are wiped off the face of the earth each day in Ukraine. Every single day.

I can’t live in the delusion that peace will happen without giving Ukraine more support instead of just enough to barely keep them alive.

My conscience won’t let me be silent.

Stephen J. Benham is a professor of music education and chair of performance at Duquesne University and president of Music in World Cultures Inc.