U.S. and Russian officials reportedly have drafted a 28-point peace plan meant to end the war Russia started in Ukraine. Based on media accounts, the plan would entail massive concessions from the Ukrainian side and virtually nothing from Russia other than a hollow promise not to attack Ukraine any further.
The plan would also include, among other things:
- Ukraine’s surrender of territory it currently controls in the Donbas region, which would then become a “demilitarized” zone.
- Ukraine’s permanent neutrality – i.e., no NATO membership.
- No foreign troops on Ukrainian soil (of course, the only foreign troops on Ukrainian soil right now are Russian occupying forces).
- Limits on the Ukrainian military to half of its current levels and an end to outside military aid.
None of this is acceptable to the Ukrainian side, nor should it be. It would enable Russia to resume its military campaign against its neighbor down the road.
As the administration continues to pursue an end to the war, it should keep the following points in mind:
- Russia’s Vladimir Putin is not interested in peace in Ukraine. Instead, he thinks he can defeat and destroy Ukraine, oust its current leadership, outlast Western support for the country, and restore Russia as a great nation.
- Russian victory over Ukraine is not inevitable. Putin and his generals, along with many Western analysts, thought victory would come in a matter of days, weeks at most in 2022. Nearly four years into the full-scale invasion, the campaign has been a disaster for Russia. With the right kinds of assistance provided quickly, Ukraine could actually defeat Russia’s invading and occupying forces.
- The United States should never recognize Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea from 2014 (a position Mike Pompeo, President Trump’s Secretary of State from his first term, made clear in 2018) or any other territory Russia has seized through use of force, as the 28-point plan apparently was prepared to do.
- American pressure to end the war should be applied to Moscow, not Kyiv. President Zelensky has repeatedly made clear Ukraine’s readiness to negotiate an end to the war; Putin has consistently rejected such efforts unless they entail the complete subjugation of Ukraine to Russia.
- Instead, the United States, together with our European allies, should:
- Ramp up military assistance to Ukraine to apply greater pressure on Putin to rethink his goals. Russia already has suffered more than a million killed and wounded and has little to show for such huge losses.
- Implement tougher sanctions on Russia and on major importers of Russian energy, including by advancing the Senate sanctions bill that is now sponsored by 85 Senators. U.S. sanctions on Russia’s two major oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil, were the first imposed during the current administration but have been delayed as Lukoil seeks to dump its foreign assets. Countries like Hungary should not be given a pass.
- Seize and make available to Ukraine the roughly $300 billion in Russian hard currency assets currently frozen in Western financial institutions. That this issue has not been resolved nearly four years into Russia’s full-scale invasion is inexcusable.
- Insist on the return of the thousands of kidnapped Ukrainian children and Ukrainian POWs, an issue First Lady Melania Trump has taken on.
- Seek accountability for Russian war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. Putin, after all, has been indicted by the International Criminal Court for his kidnapping of Ukrainian children.
The United States and the democratic community of nations must stand with Ukraine against Russia’s brutal, forcible seizure of Ukrainian territory. Ukraine represents the frontline of freedom, and its heroic citizens, who endure deadly and daily Russian bombardments and who have pushed back against a much larger military, deserve Western support. If not stopped in Ukraine, Putin will target other nations, which he already has been doing, but more aggressively. If we want to prevent the possibility of a Chinese attack against Taiwan, an important way to do so is by showing unstinting backing for Ukraine and imposing greater costs on Russia and its accomplices.
The United States should not be discussing the future of U.S.-Russian relations while Russian missiles and drones continue to wreak havoc on Ukraine, killing innocent civilians and trying to freeze and force the population into submission with winter coming.
The 28-point plan should be dropped and replaced with a simple one-point plan: Russia, get out of Ukraine!
