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Ukraine’s Darth Vader & The Pentagon’s Voodoo Economics

On one level, it’s been a terrible week for Ukraine: the House passed a CR that doesn’t include aid and Slovakia, its neighbor, elected a pro-Russian madman. But actually, believe it or not, things aren’t quite as bad as they seem—at least not yet.

Robert Fico
Most Western outlets have labeled Slovak politician Robert Fico “pro-Russian,” and so his party’s victory on Saturday, of course, sounds very ominous. Photo: Vladimir Simicek via Getty Images
Julia Ioffe
October 4, 2023

Two big things happened for Ukraine outside of its borders over the weekend. The first happened here, in Washington, when the House of Representatives surprised everyone and passed a short-term funding measure that would allow the U.S. government to function until mid-November. The measure, however, notably did not include any aid for Ukraine. The Ukraine proposal had gone from $24 billion to $6 billion and then to zero. The second was the parliamentary elections in Slovakia, where a populist named Robert Fico led his party to victory, in part on promises not to send any more aid—“not a single bullet”—to Ukraine.