JUNE 2026 – Robert Doar is president of the American Enterprise Institute, so he’s both pressured and invited to publish his views with some professional regularity. Recently he made a trip to Odesa, Ukraine, the Black Sea port city that Ukraine has managed to hold on to – and maintain as a vital export hub. Odesa is very much in Russia’s line of fire, so Doar’s visit there was no ceremonial layover – just going was an act of courage nearly all journalists don’t seem to have these days. In a WSJ column published June 7, Doar seemed to capture the vibe of both the weary country overall, as well as living in the Odesa war zone.
The war has taken a toll. Odesa’s prosperity was limited to the eight-block radius around the historic center. Everyone over 50 in Kyiv looks exhausted. Security is omnipresent, and the comforts we take for granted in the West can vanish without warning—as when my upscale hotel couldn’t muster a hot shower. As if to compensate, on a drizzly Sunday evening in Kyiv, a crowd gathered in the street beneath an apartment building’s third-floor balcony to hear a makeshift string quartet play concertos.
It’s not exactly David Halberstam reporting from Saigon, but credit Doar for observing clearly and constructively a place that just isn’t getting enough of America’s attention and respect. This column is a reminder too that columnists – hardly day-to-day journalists – are increasingly important as sources of reporting, not simply opining.
Commenting WSJ readers generally are on board with full support of Ukraine – here’s one of the most popular comments attached to Doar’s column:
“A Ukrainian general reminded us that it is too early for self-congratulation: “The Russian army has not given up,” he said, “and they won’t give up until leaders from Moscow allow them to.”
Quite true. While much of the news from Ukraine lately has been encouraging, Putin has shown no signs yet of being reasonable. He fires rockets and drones into Ukrainian civilian areas every day, continuing the inexcusable and blatant murders he started with his invasion in 2022.
The Ukrainians are fighting not only for their independence from an ugly would-be dictator in the Kremlin, but as the front-line fighters defending the Free World from today’s new threat from Russia–not Communist aggression, but Russian imperialist aggression. It is inexcusable that our current administration is not doing more to support the Ukrainians in that fight. We have a vital national interest in seeing that the world is not dominated by dictators like Putin and his comrades in evil, Iran and North Korea, all supported indirectly by China. Let us hope enough sensible and wise voices prevail in our government to see the importance of stepping up our aid to Ukraine and putting more pressure on Russia to stop its war of aggression.
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/ukraine-is-tired-and-brimming-with-energy-14421c9d