The Russian invasion of Ukraine reconfirms the Thucydidean truth: “The strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.” We have been admiring Ukrainians for valiantly resisting the Russian Army. Yet our admiration is like a dying flame, for we know Ukrainians will likely have their freedom snatched. They will die in numbers, have their families ripped apart, and a generation will become impoverished—and suffer.

Russian President Vladimir Putin had been opposed to Ukraine joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which had earlier taken into its fold countries that were constituents of the erstwhile Soviet Union or allied to it. NATO’s expansion has pushed its frontline to the border of Russia, alarming its elite and prompting Putin to say his country has “nowhere further to retreat to—do they think we’ll just sit idly by?” His invasion of Ukraine ostensibly bears out Thucydides’ assertion that the “strong do what they can.”