Arming Ukraine

How the West helped fight Vladimir Putin.

- By Joshua Yaffa

In early September, Oleksii Reznikov, Ukraine’s defense minister, travelled from the center of Kyiv to a U.S. airbase in Ramstein-Miesenbach, Germany, where NATO officials were gathering to discuss military support for Ukraine. The trip, a distance of about twelve hundred miles, roughly the equivalent of travelling from New York to Minneapolis, lasted the better part of a day. Because there are no flights out of Ukraine, Reznikov had to take a car to the border and a plane the rest of the way. As he set off from the capital, he couldn't help but hope for good news. Ukrainian forces had opened a second flank in an ambitious counteroffensive, a surprise operation in the direction of Russian-occupied territory in the Kharkiv region. T learned not to raise my expectations too high,” Reznikov said, especially in wartime.”

Ukraine’s President, Volodymyr Zelensky, appointed Reznikov defense minister last November, just three months before the Russian invasion. Reznikov is a lawyer and a longtime fixture of Kyiv politics, a veteran of the Soviet Air Force and an avid skydiver. He now serves as a lead negotiator securing the Western arms his country needs to continue its fight. I get a certain request from the generals,” he said.“Then I explain to our partners the need for it.”