From the moment Russian forces began their widespread missile barrage against Ukrainian targets in February, the United States and Europe have sought to rally the world on Ukraine’s behalf. The narrative of the collective West has been simple, and it appeals to our moral sensibilities about what is right and wrong — Vladimir Putin, the thin-skinned, bloodthirsty, nuclear-armed dictator is hellbent on a war of conquest. And the international community needs to step up and ensure he doesn’t succeed.
U.S. and European heads of state took that argument to New York last week, when world leaders descended upon United Nations headquarters for the organization’s annual debate. In speech after speech, they lambasted Putin as the world’s biggest threat to peace today. In his own forceful remarks, President Joe Biden drew a line in the sand and let it be known that Russia, and Russia alone, is to blame for sparking the deadliest conflict in Europe in nearly 80 years.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz blasted Putin’s war of aggression as “imperialism, plain and simple.” French President Emmanuel Macron delivered some of the strongest comments of the session, going as far as to fault other countries that haven’t taken a clear stance against Putin. In Macron’s words, “Those who are silent today further the cause of a new imperialism.”
