For the good of both countries and for the cause of freedom, it is vital that the United States and Ukraine get back on track.
To the dismay of those who support freedom, the world is turning toward the appeasement of dictators.
It was painful to watch last week’s meeting in the Oval Office, a room President George W. Bush has often called a “shrine to freedom.” President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance attacked Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the democratically-elected Ukrainian president who is leading the fight against a dictatorial aggressor.
To insinuate that Ukraine is somehow the perpetrator of the aggression, the saber-rattling toward World War III, and the impediment to peace is delusional. Nobody wants the war to end more than Ukrainians, who, after all, are the ones suffering and dying from Vladimir Putin’s war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. The bombardment by Russia is constant. Peace will only come the day Russia ceases fighting. In the meantime, Ukrainians are justified in defending their sovereign territory.
Any peace deal should be a lasting one, not simply a Neville Chamberlain-esque exercise in the temporary appeasement of an aggressor. Ukrainians and Zelenskyy need assurances that they are never attacked again. They ask for security guarantees to deter Putin from launching further aggression, given his failure to keep his prior promises.
They are on the front lines, fighting not just for their freedom but for ours as well. If the United States were to appease the invader, Russia would regain the military advantage, and nothing would stop it from moving deeper into Ukraine at some point. Putin, who has consistently reneged on agreements, would feel emboldened and ultimately target other countries in the region, for example the NATO-member Baltic states, as he marches toward reassembling the former Soviet Union. Recall that our weak withdrawal from Afghanistan may have given Putin the idea that he could get away with his full-scale invasion of Ukraine six months later.
The Ukrainians have demonstrated tremendous bravery and innovation against a much larger fighting force. They are extremely grateful for America’s support – and have consistently expressed that. With that support, they disproved predictions that Russia would overtake Ukraine in a matter of days or weeks. They have inflicted huge losses on the Russian side and significantly weakened Russia’s military capabilities.
It’s also worth noting that nearly 70% of total Ukraine assistance is spent in the United States or on U.S. forces, according to a study by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). That creates jobs for Americans while also helping Ukraine and helping to rebuild our atrophied defense industrial base. Moreover, a different AEI study found that ceasing our support for Ukraine will be much more costly for the United States in the long run – to the tune of an additional $800 billion in defense spending if Russia overruns Ukraine.
Putin and Xi Jinping must be celebrating that their talking points have been taken up in Washington. Former Russian President Dmitri Medvedev posted on X: “The insolent pig finally got a proper slap down in the Oval Office.” Our democratic friends in Taiwan are now worried they might be next.
President Trump was elected to pursue the America First foreign policy agenda on which he campaigned, and he has every right to do so. But voters did not mandate “America First, Russia Second.” Indeed, it remains in the U.S. national security interest to provide support to an independent and sovereign Ukraine.
Let there be no mistake: Ukraine and Ukrainians are our friends and allies; Putin’s Russia is the enemy. We must treat our friends as friends and our adversaries as adversaries. Most Americans seem to understand this: a recent poll cited in the Wall Street Journal found 69% of Republican voters say Russia is the aggressor and 83% disapprove of Putin.
Leaders in Europe, undoubtedly distressed by what they witnessed in Washington, have voiced their support for Ukraine. Europeans are painfully aware of the similarities to the 1930s and the dangers of an appeasement strategy that led to World War II. They understand the problems with having the United States and Russia meet to discuss Ukraine without Ukraine or Europeans involved.
Over the weekend European leaders voiced strong support for Zelenskyy, reassuring Ukraine that it is not being abandoned. But it would be much more powerful for the United States and Europe to remain together in backing Ukraine than for Washington to cede its leadership role to Brussels.
It is Putin’s forces who have brutalized Ukrainians every day since 2014. It is Putin who insists on a change in the Ukrainian government, permanent neutrality for Ukraine, and recognition of illegally occupied Ukrainian territory – all demands that are nonstarters for the Ukrainian side in negotiations.
For the good of both countries and for the cause of freedom, it is vital that the United States and Ukraine get back on track. There may soon be a meeting between Trump and Putin, in which Putin will surely attempt to manipulate our president. One can only hope that our American leader will adopt a tougher line toward his Russian counterpart, America’s enemy, than he did toward Zelenskyy, America’s friend. After all, Zelenskyy and Ukrainians want the war to end, just not through imposed capitulation. By contrast, it is Putin who has shown no serious interest in ending the fighting and killing.
President Trump rightly said that lives are at stake. So are freedom and democracy around the world. Appeasement and concessions hardly form the peace through strength that prevents future bloodshed.
