Trudy Rubin

BRUSSELS — On April 19, I watched an audience of European and American political officials and strategic experts pay rapt attention as U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy told them Congress would enact a Ukraine aid package that weekend. Minutes later, the attendees at the German Marshall Fund's Brussels Forum broke into cheers at the news that the House legislation had cleared an initial hurdle on its way to approval the next day.

Their emotional response was testimony to the criticality of tight cooperation between the United States and its European allies if Vladimir Putin's Russia is to be pushed back from Ukraine.

Yet, several days spent in Brussels, including at NATO headquarters, underscored two basic facts: First, Europe (and Ukraine) cannot withstand Russian aggression alone without U.S. leadership and continued aid to Kyiv.

And — this can't be repeated enough — Putin's aggression against Ukraine is not just a security threat to Europe. It is also a threat to the United States.Most NATO members, especially former satellite states of the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe and the Baltics, have watched with growing alarm as Putin repeats his intent to reconstitute the Russian (read: former Soviet) empire and crushes the Ukrainian language, culture, and religion in occupied areas of Ukraine.

That alarm has intensified as Russia has used disinformation campaigns to interfere in European elections and promote far-right leaders more sympathetic to Moscow.

Russian missiles have already violated the air space of NATO members Poland and Romania as they target defenseless Ukrainian civilian infrastructure.Europeans have stepped up dramatically since the Russian invasion to increase their defense budgets and help Ukraine.

Donald Trump's claim last week on Truth Social that "the United States is over $100 Billion Dollars into the Ukraine War more than Europe" is utterly false. So is his isolationist stance that "we have an ocean between us as separation.

"European nations had committed more than double the amount of aid the U.S.........

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