In politics, silence is never just silence. It’s often a choice. Sometimes strategic, sometimes convenient, and occasionally, deeply revealing. In the case of New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, his long and careful quiet around Ukraine—Europe’s largest land war since 1945—tells us more than he might like.
Mamdani isn’t shy about foreign affairs. He’s spoken passionately for Palestinian rights. He’s condemned U.S. airstrikes in Iran. He’s called for normalized ties with Cuba and Venezuela. These positions, controversial or not, reflect a clear ideological worldview. He stands in opposition to American imperialism and speaks often in solidarity with what he sees as victims of Western overreach.
But when it comes to Ukraine? Nothing.
For nearly three years, a sovereign country has faced an unprovoked invasion by a nuclear-armed neighbor. A democracy has been shelled, starved, dismembered. Cultural sites have been leveled. Civilians kidnapped or murdered. Yet from Mamdani, who rarely misses a chance to connect global struggles, there’s been silence.
It’s hard not to see that silence as intentional. Maybe Ukraine doesn’t align with the usual narratives. Maybe because the country is armed by the West, its resistance is less appealing to parts of the international left. Maybe because Russia casts itself as an anti-NATO power, its aggression is easier to ignore. But that’s exactly the kind of ideological rigidity that undermines moral clarity.
Mamdani has called for diplomacy with regimes that are firmly within Russia’s sphere of influence. Cuba. Venezuela. Iran. His worldview is defined by an urgent need to challenge American power—but rarely does it extend that same skepticism to authoritarian powers who offer nothing better in return.
That’s what makes his silence on Ukraine so glaring. It’s not just absence. It suggests a blind spot. A refusal to grapple with a war that complicates his worldview. Because if Ukraine deserves support—and it does—then not every American-backed struggle can be dismissed as empire-building. And not every country standing against the West is a champion of liberation.
You don’t have to be a hawk to see what’s happening. You just have to care when civilians are crushed under tanks, when cultures are erased, and when a smaller country is fighting to remain one at all. If Mamdani can speak clearly on Palestine, he can speak clearly on this.
Foreign policy may not be the top issue in a city election. But New York is a global city. It is shaped by diaspora politics, refugee flows, and international crises that land directly in neighborhoods and policy debates. Where a candidate stands—or chooses not to stand—matters.
Mamdani has made his name by speaking loudly for the voiceless. That makes his silence on Ukraine all the more deafening.