Ukraine is the heir to America's revolutionary fight for liberty and liberation

In the era of 24-hour news cycles, memories are growing shorter. Less than 30 months into Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine, one waged by the Kremlin and shaped by its imperialistic visions and genocidal dreams, pundits speculate over so-called "war fatigue" by Ukraine's partners. Less than a week away from the beginning of NATO's 75th-anniversary summit, talk of the Organization's collective reticence to admit Ukraine as a member state is growing louder, with similar arguments for why Ukrainian membership is at the "not just yet stage," echoing yearly excuses dating back to the beginning of the Biden administration.

Some key points suggesting that Ukraine's accession to NATO should occur now are indisputable. Under President Zelenskyy's leadership, Ukraine's membership metrics have vastly improved. Ukraine has been a singular force in preventing just the second Article 5 from being called in the group's 75-year history. In addition, the Armed Forces of Ukraine, led by the battle-hardened commander-in-chief, Colonel-General Syrskyi, have rewritten the expectations around what modern war is while finding victory after victory against a numerically superior opponent. 

However, despite the above realities, an invitation for Ukraine to join will not be forthcoming this year. Ukraine's story of success is trapped in a vortex of chaos, one in which the forces of negativity are in a constant push and pull with the facts of the matter. Yet, with perspective and time, history books will look back at the actions and acts of today's Ukraine and find only one valid comparison. That was a war fought nearly 250 years ago, culminating in the signing of a hallowed document precisely 248 years ago today.

Ukraine today is the heir and successor in the area of liberty and liberation to those revolutionaries fighting for freedom in the 1770s United States. In ratifying the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, the United States announced itself a sovereign nation free from the tyranny of an absolute monarch residing in a different land, and although Ukraine has existed as an independent state since the breakup of the Soviet Union, Russia's colonialist approach to its neighbor never dissipated and, after 2014, became much darker. The nation's full-throated response to the despot Putin's invasion of the country on February 24, 2022, showed, too, that Ukraine would cast aside the chains of servitude and a place within a feudal system marked by terror and fear to remain a land of modern ideals and forward-thinking ideas.

The motivations to fight against these dual evils are similar as well. Both countries are steeped in a passionate belief in self-rule, individual determination, and the understanding that power must reside in the hands of the populace and not in possession of a king or dictator. On the battlefield, comparison is also apt. Partisan militias raised amongst the locals carried out effective irregular and asymmetric strategies against supposedly more professional and better-trained forces while funding from foreign partners helped provide much-needed weapons and supplies.

Though the July 4 signing is a day remembered, the United States' struggle for victory did not end for another six years. It was only in September of 1783 that American troops finally vanquished the King's forces in their entirety. Fighting a more than seven-year war, the patriots of liberty refused to grow tired, nor did the civilians backing them. As Ukraine looks at 11 years of limited war and three of the all-encompassing variety, those fighting remain as steadfast as ever in achieving a real, lasting victory, backed in this effort by the civilian government and the population as a whole.

Next week at the NATO gathering, as the motorcades of countries blessed with peace pass by statues and monuments dedicated to those heroes who created the world's greatest republic, they would be well to remember that neither the hot takes of a professional punditry class nor the vague idea of fatigue in the face existential extermination stopped the first citizens of the United States from achieving the impossible. Nor will it stop Ukraine from reaching the same outcome two and a half centuries later.

Sergeant Sarah Ashton-Cirillo, Armed Forces of Ukraine

The author's opinions do not necessarily reflect those of Ukrinform's editorial board.