VLAD WHO?:

Ihor Makarevych bumps along the pitted roads to his fields, talking about warfare and his crops. When conflict broke out in eastern Ukraine in 2014, helicopter-launched heat flares scorched his land. Later, 19 of his employees were conscripted into the army. "There were nine road checkpoints installed by Ukrainian soldiers near our farmlands," says the 52-year-old, who was an officer in the Soviet Army in the 1980s.

Makarevych is chief executive officer of Agrofirma Podolivska, which manages farmland in Ukraine's Kharkiv region, to the north bordering Russia and to the east, the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, partly controlled by separatists. Despite that proximity, when he arrives at his fields, the war seems far away. Semi-automated New Holland and John Deere combines are starting to harvest corn and sunflowers, following choreography developed by Kharkiv-based coders. Farmers check moisture levels on monitors inside their cabs, while deep-yellow grain is cut against a blue sky, the colors of the Ukrainian flag.

The corn and sunflowers will make their way to the ports of Odessa and Mykolayiv for export, sold to Archer Daniels Midland, Cargill, and other multinationals as part of the stream of grain and oilseeds that makes Ukraine the world's fifth-biggest seller of wheat and other grains. Companies are betting that global appetites will increasingly rely on Black Sea soil even as obstacles to growth remain. "Ukraine is a big answer to the question of how you feed the world," says Steve Pifer, a former U.S. ambassador there who's now with the Brookings Institution. 

In 2000 Hillary was elected senator from New York with its large Ukrainian American constituency. She delivered, recognizing the Holodomor as genocide; supporting Ukraine's membership in the World Trade Organization; laying the legislative groundwork for Ukraine's membership in NATO at some point.

Based on her record, you can argue that no candidate for president has been stronger on Ukraine than Hillary Clinton. And why? Just as Putin allies like Paul Manafort and Carter Page influence Donald J. Trump, Ms. Clinton takes advice from friends of Ukraine, particularly Melanne Verveer. A friend of the Clintons from their college days, Ms. Verveer grew up in Pennsylvania's Anthracite region, attended Ukrainian school, etc., and then, as the first lady's chief of staff, accompanied her and the president on their various trips to Ukraine. (Melanne and I have been friends since the 1980s when she worked for Toledo Rep. Marcy Kaptur and I was with Cleveland Rep. Mary Rose Oakar.)

Back to Hillary. As secretary of state, Ms. Clinton recommitted to Ukraine, both on overall policy and with small, but significant matters. Consider this: in May 2010, soon after Victor Yanukovych became president, an officer from the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) confronted the Rev. Dr. Borys Gudziak - then rector of the Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU) - warning that he would face criminal charges should UCU students participate in demonstrations. The agent presented Father Gudziak with a document, and demanded he read and then sign it to acknowledge its validity and return it for the SBU files.

Father Gudziak, now bishop in Paris, is one tough guy. He refused to read the document and ordered the agent to leave before going to his computer to e-mail the world about Mr. Yanukovych's Soviet-style tactics.

Six weeks later, Secretary Clinton came to Kyiv to meet Ukraine's new president. But first, she staged a very public meeting at the U.S. Embassy with Father Gudziak. Only then, having sent a message, did the secretary meet with President Yanukovych. A few days later, SBU Chief Valerii Khoroshkovskyi flew to Lviv to apologize to Father Gudziak.

Secretaries of state and presidents, of course, also deal with the big picture. Between 1914 and 1945, there were two world wars and the dictatorships of Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, Mao and a dozen other tyrants. Tens of millions were killed, including untold numbers of Ukrainians whose territory was a perennial battlefield. Nor did two oceans spare the U.S. Sucked into both world wars, hundreds of thousands of Americans were killed; trillions of dollars were expended.

At the end of World War II and looking back at global catastrophe, wise leaders in the U.S. and Europe created military, political and economic institutions to keep the peace and provide prosperity. And it's worked.

Now, the legacy of European peace is threatened like never before. And Ukraine is at the center. Fed up with corruption, Ukrainians in 2013-2014 massively voted with their feet and hearts at the Maidan to reject Russia and join Europe, sparking Vladimir Putin's annexation of Crimea and "hybrid war" in the Donbas. You can argue whether the anti-Russian sanctions and aid to Ukraine have been enough. Indeed, Hillary, having left the administration before the Maidan, did just that. In 2014, she condemned Mr. Putin's aggression as a 21st century version of Hitler's invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1938 and called for more financing, military training and equipment for Ukraine. Many criticized her for the Hitler analogy, but she's also one tough person and stood her ground. Now, more than two years into the crisis, it's essential that the U.S., the European Union and NATO hold together. I'm confident they will if Hillary becomes president. You can't say the same about a Trump presidency.

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