The Russian invasion of Ukraine has been cataclysmic—tens of thousands have been killed, while millions have been torn from their homes and displaced within Ukraine and across Europe. Entire cities have been leveled and many Ukrainians have been captured, tortured, and sent to internment camps. Civilians have been massacred in Bucha, Irpin, and elsewhere. Having attempted in vain to conquer and annex the entire country, Vladimir Putin is now trying to slice off as much territory as possible. Russian forces are executing this strategy with indiscriminate artillery and missile bombardment of civilian areas—a terror campaign that doesn’t require precision-guided munitions (which Russia quickly depleted and is struggling to replace). The sanctions imposed on Russia have fueled a global financial crisis, and Putin has held shipments of food and energy supplies hostage in retaliation. Russia is obliterating Ukrainian culture in the areas it controls.

Despite all this, Duss finds it necessary to inform the Left that the conflict isn’t in fact a propaganda item invented by Western governments to inflame our appetite for war. It’s a depressing commentary on the principles of today’s left-wingers that someone needs to hold their hands through these elementary points. As Duss notes, the Biden administration tried to avoid war and now wants to support Ukraine without drawing the United States or NATO into a larger conflict with Russia. Western leaders were desperate to prevent the war, for reasons that are becoming more obvious by the day. Beyond the massive influx of Ukrainian refugees in Europe and around the world, Western publics are now facing rates of inflation they haven’t seen in decades, an energy crisis, and the possibility of recession (if we haven’t already entered one).

Rather than pandering to the Left and spelling out why Ukraine matters in big, bold font, Duss may want to consider why he has to treat his fellow left-wingers like children and convince them that the invasion is, in fact, exactly what it looks like—a Russian atrocity.