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[I don’t think she was over there just passing out cookies.]

She was probably urging them to stand fast. Countries can collapse pretty quickly. Czechoslovakia could have fought German invasion. It gave up. France fell in 46 days. Poland fell in 36. It wasn’t clear that Ukraine wouldn’t follow in Czechoslovakia’s, France’s or Poland’s footsteps. That it remains standing is pretty surprising. Czechoslovakia was far smaller than Germany, but it wasn’t far behind economically, at least on a per capita basis. France and Poland were not too far off from Germany, yet collapsed.

So far, Ukraine has accomplished a great deal merely staying independent. It will get an opportunity to reclaim its lands either when Russia falls apart or when it’s distracted by wars with China to its east. What it needs to do today is rebuild its war-ravaged economy and join the prosperous economies of the majority of the democratic ex-Warsaw Pact and former Soviet countries. That way, when opportunity comes knocking, Ukraine will be ready.