Peter Somssich, Ph.D, is a retired physicist and material scientist and former NH State Representative living in Portsmouth. Imre Somssich, Ph.D, is a retired Research Group Leader of the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding in Cologne, Germany.

We left our homeland Hungary during the 1956 revolution as five- and six-year-olds. At the time, Hungary was a satellite state of the Soviet Union. For various political reasons, our family faced a grim future, even possible arrest. But we had the good fortune to be sponsored by an American company and allowed to emigrate to the U.S.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Soviet Union and Western nations finally signed a peace treaty ending World War II. The signatories of that treaty, including Russia, agreed to national borders, including Ukraine’s.

Now President Putin is claiming that Ukraine belongs to Russia, and has hinted that those other countries, e.g., Poland and Hungary, might also belong to Russia. Ukraine has asked NATO and the European Union for aid and weapons to defend its sovereignty. They are the ones fighting and dying. To date, both the U.S. and Europe have committed billions of dollars for direct military aid to Kyiv. In addition, EU countries have taken in more than 3 million Ukrainian refugees, which has cost them over $60 billion. The European NATO allies have also pledged additional billions in military and economic aid, but a bill to provide further U.S. military support is stalled in Congress, even though Ukraine is running short on ammunition.

Why is supporting Ukraine in the best interest of the United States? Thanks to countries like the U.S., Canada, Germany, the NATO alliance was created after World War II to ensure no more wars would occur in any NATO state. This alliance had been successful until 2014 when Russia unilaterally annexed Crimea, and two years ago invaded Ukraine.

However, since Russia is now also threatening NATO countries, the U.S. could be pulled into the conflict because of our commitment to defend any attacked NATO country. Our country’s best interest is served by a strong NATO that avoids direct military intervention and supports the brave Ukrainians who are also fighting for our common democratic values.

We sincerely ask all fair-minded Americans, Democrats, Republicans and independents, to contact their congressional representatives, and to insist that they support Ukraine.