Four years into Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, casualty figures are in the millions, and negotiations show no signs that Russia will concede anything to end the war. Eric Patterson, of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, argues that the war is a civilizational test for the West.
Patterson is the foundation’s president and CEO, and a scholar of war theory, religion, and national security. He served in the U.S. government and military, and is the author or editor of more than 20 books on statecraft and the legacy of communist regimes.
“We’re talking about a war that over the past four years has had 1.8 million casualties,” he says. Ukraine, once home to 40 million people, has seen roughly eight million flee combat zones. “It’s a truly stunning loss of life and infrastructure,” he says.
Despite the devastation, he has visited Ukraine to witness the resilience that keeps Ukraine in the fight. Patterson describes a Ukrainian military band that performed Christmas carols and pop songs in a Kyiv train station, as civilians gathered to sing along. “There’s a spirit here in the Ukrainian people, a spirit of Christmas, but a spirit of resilience, of gritty resolve,” he says. “The Russians are not going to be able to beat that.”
Patterson sees the conflict as consistent with Russia’s communist legacy. “Russia’s clearly what I would call a communist legacy country,” he says, pointing to an “ethic that the ends justify the means.” He describes a regime that clamps down on religious freedom, controls media, and bullies minority groups. “This is a country that has all of the old tendencies,” he says, including imprisoning dissidents and attacking neighbors.
Putin, he argues, may not be a doctrinaire Marxist, but he embraces statist power politics rooted in Leninist tradition. “Instead, it is a statist conception, with him at the center as the person who knows best,” Patterson says, describing a “cult of personality” similar to other authoritarian systems.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s recent Munich speech was a call for renewal in Western Europe. Rubio warned against managing “civilizational decline” and urged Europe to recover its cultural self-confidence. Patterson agrees. “We do not want to manage Western decline,” he says, referencing concerns about lost civic virtue, rising debt, and weakened defense commitments.
Western Europe’s challenge, in his view, is not identical to Ukraine’s. Ukraine, he argues, has worked toward religious freedom, press freedom, and market reform under extraordinarily difficult conditions. “Ukraine is at the forefront of this in terms of this civilizational identity,” he says. The sharper critique, he adds, falls on wealthier European states that have underinvested in defense. “Western Europe will not pay for itself,” he says, while eastern allies such as Poland and the Baltic states have strengthened their commitments.
When asked whether Russia has offered any meaningful concessions in ongoing diplomatic efforts, Patterson is blunt. “There have been no concessions,” he says. Moscow continues to demand territory it has not fully conquered. He believes the minimum U.S. position should be clear. “At a bare minimum, we ought to be letting the Ukrainians fight this war by providing them with the armaments, the tools so that they can fight, defend themselves,” he says. “Why not let the little guys at least have the tools to defend themselves when they’re attacked on their own home turf?”
Patterson also urges the U.S. to view Ukraine within a larger strategic framework. “This is an administration that does actually seem to have a comprehensive approach that’s extremely energetic to international affairs,” he says, linking policy toward Ukraine with actions in Latin America, the Middle East, and Asia. Domestic reindustrialization, border security, and sanctions policy all intersect with national security, he argues.
Ukraine’s endurance, Patterson suggests, offers a reminder of what is at stake. “There’s a spirit here,” he says, one that refuses surrender despite overwhelming force.
Whether Europe and the United States match that resolve will shape the war’s outcome and possibly the future of the Western project itself.
