So You Ended Up on a Ukrainian Enemies List. . . .

The New Center: A Wednesday Newsletter From Sohrab Ahmari

Last week, a Ukrainian NGO called “Texty” published a list of 388 American individuals and 76 entities that are supposedly guilty of “impeding aid to Ukraine” with “common arguments that often mirror Kremlin propaganda.” You probably won’t be surprised to learn that Matthew Schmitz and I individually and Compact institutionally are identified on what has quickly come to be known as Ukraine’s American-enemies list, as have several of our contributors from the left and the right.

Early on, the report highlights “Away From the Abyss,” a statement calling for de-escalation published by Compact soon after we launched in the spring of 2022. The statement was signed by intellectuals across the political spectrum, from the Trump consigliere Michael Anton and the post-liberal thinker Patrick Deneen, to the leftist law professor Samuel Moyn and the progressive writer Freddie deBoer. The Texty people were also incensed by a May 2023 Compact essay by Sean McMeekin, the eminent historian of Russia and a signatory of “Away From the Abyss,” in which he argued that “there is no declared Russian war aim beyond installing a friendlier government in Kiev that rules out future NATO membership.”