The Best of the Bulwark on Ukraine

Plus; Setting the record straight on Israel

A woman wears make up in the colors of the Ukrainian flag protesting against Russian invasion of Ukraine in front of Brandenburg gate on February 24, 2022 in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Hannibal Hanschke/Getty Images)

Happy Sunday (and remember to reset your clocks).

ICYMI, our team has been hard at work covering events in Ukraine. We’ve drawn on some of the country’s foremost experts and most thoughtful commentators, including General Mark Hertling, Garry Kasparov, Clint Watts, Eric Edelman, Eliot Cohen, David Frum, Kori Schake, Tom Nichols, David Kramer, Stephen Peter Rosen, and Rachel Vindman.

Throughout the war, we have also offered daily commentary from our own team, and from contributors with deep knowledge of both Ukraine and Russia.

So, I thought it would be worthwhile to give you a sample of the best of our commentary. because it says a lot about who we are and what we are doing at the Bulwark.

This is only a partial list, and does not include all of our extensive, daily newsletter coverage, in The Triad and Morning Shots — or the podcasts and livestreams that are usually reserved for Bulwark+ members.

I hope you find our coverage valuable; and if you do, please consider joining us at Bulwark+ (if you have not already done so)… because we have a lot more to come.

Bulwark Articles:

We began here last December: “War in Europe Could Be Imminent. Here’s Everything You Need to Know,” By Ben Parker

“The Ghosts of Kyiv and the Shadow of War,” By Natalia Antonova

“Dispatch from Kyiv: Fear, Frustration, and Fatalism,” By Vladislav Davidzon

“Putin’s War,” By Bill Kristol

“What You Need to Understand About the Road Ahead,” Jonathan V. Last

“Trump’s Despicable, Disgraceful, and Un-American Response To Putin’s Evil,” By Tim Miller

”The Real Reasons Putin Feels Threatened by NATO,” By Tomáš Klvaňa

“Shame On Those Who Defended Trump’s ‘Perfect Call’,” By Amanda Carpenter

“What Changed Germany’s Mind,” By Mitchell A. Orenstein

“What NATO Should Do Now,” By Eric Edelman and Daniel Fata

“Putin’s Bogus Blame-NATO Excuse,” By Cathy Young

“Old Ukraine Is Gone. Ukrainians Carry On.” By Natalia Antonova

“Taiwan and China Keep Eyes on Ukraine,” By Michael Mazza

“Ukraine’s Unexpected Hero,” By Tim Miller

“Reality Comes Knocking,” By Corbin Barthold

“The U.S. Is Not at War, But Its Civil Society Is Mobilizing Against Russia,” By Ben Parker

“Putin and the Nuclear End Game,” By Stephen Peter Rosen

“Paths That Would Eventually Lead to American Involvement to Help Protect Ukraine,” By Kori Schake

“Why NATO Can’t Move Into the Black Sea and Save Odessa,” By Ben Parker

“Blaming the Ukraine Invasion on … the Gays?” By Cathy Young

“Putin in a Box,” By Jonathan V. Last

“What the Ukrainians Are Fighting For,” By David J. Kramer

“What Putin Cares About Most,” By John Agresto

“Nikki Haley’s Hypocrisy and Faux Outrage Over Ukraine,” By William Saletan

“Thank God Trump Isn’t President Right Now,” By Mona Charen

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Bulwark Podcasts:

General Mark Hertling: Why the Russians Will Lose

Listen here.

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Garry Kasparov: Putin Is a Merchant of Doubt

Listen here.

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Clint Watts: What Is Putin’s Offramp?

Listen here.

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Tom Nichols: Putin, Unhinged and in a Bubble

Listen here.

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Rachel Vindman: The GOP Enablers Brought Us to This Moment

Listen here.

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A Week Where Decades Happened (with Kori Schake)

Listen here.

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Bill Kristol: MAGA Turns Anti Anti-Putin

Listen here.

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Amb. Eric Edelman: Why Are We Deterring Ourselves?

Listen here.

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Also check out Sonny Bunch’s excellent podcast on “A Crucial Film to Understand Ukraine’s Struggle,” and our “Shield of the Republic” podcast with Eliot Cohen and Eric Edelman.

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Bulwark + members can also access The Secret Podcast (Tuesdays with Mona Charen and Charlie Sykes and Fridays with Sarah Longwell and JVL–off the leash and uncensored.) And… The Next Level Podcast (The future of politics, with Sarah Longwell, Tim Miller, and Jonathan V. Last.)

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Setting the record straight

On Friday, the Jerusalem Post carried this story: “Bennett advises Zelensky to surrender to Russia, Zelensky refuses.” I tweeted that out, and asked: “WTF, Israel?”

On Saturday morning I got this email (and identical DM):

Hello Charlie,

My name is Keren Hajioff and I’m Prime Minister Bennett’s spokesperson.

You were right to be shocked by the recent report you tweeted, because it is shockingly untrue. I think you’ll find it helpful to get a response from us.

Sources in the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office:

This report isn’t just inaccurate but patently false.

At no point did PM Bennett advise President Zelensky to take a deal from Putin — because no such deal was offered to Israel for us to be able to do so.

PM Bennett has at no point told Zelensky how to act nor does he have any intention to.

The dialogue between Bennett and Zelensky is good and the option of a mediation meeting in Jerusalem has been raised.

Prime Minister Bennett is focused on one thing: stopping the bloodshed and suffering in Ukraine.

I hope this helps.

(I’ve since deleted my original tweet and posted the comment from the Israeli PM’s office.)

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We Get Mail

Keep your rants, raves, laurels, and darts coming cjaysykes@gmail.com. And, remember that all Bulwark + members can comment on any Morning Shots.

Hey Charlie,

First, I want to say how much I enjoy The Bulwark. I stumbled across it in the early part of 2020 and found it great as a former Republican who stopped being one in 2016. I worked from 2013-2018 in the Missouri House of Representatives and the mileu of crazy and wild-eyed conspiracy mongers is par for the course in the Show-Me state.

We have term-limits here in Missouri and each election is a scrape at the bottom of the barrel from the deepest parts of rural Missouri. Through session after session, I listened to elected officials talk about “black helicopters”, how the United Nations was going to take over the country, and any number of rank racists and anti-everything but conservative white evangelical tirades. Each year became progressively worse until I left.

Being an outsider now, the absolute depravity of the place knows no bounds. Just look up some of the current state senators, Bob Onder (a doctor) and Mike Moon, who make some of the worst of the worst nationally seem tame. The rot is deep in Missouri, and they push forward with the proud willful ignorance of the long ago “Know Nothing Party.”

I spent years writing policy papers and legislative analysis as a non-partisan staffer where even facts and evidence were shunned because the most ignorant among them thought they held the truth because they read it on Breitbart or Fox News. The motto that is engraved on that building is “Salus populi suprema lex esto” which means “The welfare of the people is the supreme law.” A joke in that place if there ever was one.

Anyway, I know Hawley is a constant topic of conversation, but he is but the tip of the crazy from Missouri.

Thank you,

Jarad M. Perry, MPA