President Donald Trump’s posture in the Ukrainian conflict has been a never-ending seesaw of proposals.
At first, we were dismayed that it seemed the president was somewhat indifferent to Russian President Vladimir Putin‘s aggression. He and Vice President JD Vance seemed to possess a hostility toward Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and were leery of the United States spending billions of dollars to help the Ukrainians fend off the Russians.
We bristled at the overly aggressive, confrontational stance that Trump and Vance exhibited at the White House for Zelenskyy’s visit. We cut him some slack because the Ukrainian president came in with a bit of a chip on his shoulder and sought to negotiate in public, which was a terrible no-no.
However, we’ve always been strongly supportive of Ukraine’s efforts to beat back the Russians. Ukraine is a problematic country that has a history of corruption, but it is heading in the right direction and it is a country that wants desperately to side with the West, as opposed to being captive of Russia’s totalitarian influence.
We should welcome that, as we should welcome the brave efforts of the Ukrainians to push back hard against Russian aggression. They have never asked for American troops, just our financial support to let them do the fighting on the ground.
This is actually an amazing opportunity for America to weaken one of its chief military and economic foes on the planet — that being Putin’s Russia. The Ukrainians have killed over 250,000 Russian troops thus far and inflicted casualties on another 950,000. They have also exposed the Russian military as not being nearly as potent as some have thought in the past.
The best way to deter future Russian aggression is to push back now.
Allowing Russia to waltz into Kyiv would’ve sent a horrible message to our other enemies, such as China, as they contemplate making a move on Taiwan.
Weakness as exhibited by former President Joe Biden on Afghanistan was one of the things that emboldened Putin to invade its neighbor.
Trump gets credit for trying to end the carnage and the billions being spent by America. But we cannot abandon Ukraine or put them in such a position that they accept a deal that is totally untenable.
Trump’s original deal months ago was something we supported: cede the land that Russia already taken, since Ukraine has no chance in recapturing it, but allow Ukraine to thrive as an independent democracy that is aligned with the west, and where America can gain access to its minerals and get a foothold in the region.
Russia rejected it, of course, and President Trump’s response was tepid. He refused to impose secondary sanctions or to give Ukraine Tomahawk missiles. Meanwhile, Putin played for time.
Putin rejected every reasonable offer and kept throwing bombs into apartment complexes in Ukraine. (By the way, where were all the leftist university protests about this type of genocide? It seems the mainstream media and the leftist activists are not too concerned when it’s white-on-white bombing.)
Trump tried to spur discussions again by sitting down with Russians and putting a plan on paper. It was a terrible plan for Ukraine, and we criticized that severely last week.
But we do acknowledge that at least Trump got the Russians to put their demands on paper so we can have a starting point for further discussions. Then Marco Rubio swoops in to make it a far more balanced proposal to the point where Ukraine signed on.
Now the ball is in Russia’s court, and it is highly unlikely that they will sign off. They will likely just keep stretching and stretching so that they can wear down the Ukrainians, who are short on manpower. The Russians hope that they can break the will of the Europeans and the Americans through these delays.
We can’t let them do that. At some point, Trump has to put the heat on Putin to accept the deal the same way he’s placed heat on Ukraine.
That means giving the Russians a deadline to approve the reasonable deal that Rubio brokered. If Putin refuses, Trump must sign off on the Tomahawks and stronger secondary sanctions. It will also be necessary for the Europeans to finally agree to stop importing Russian oil, which is suicidal and a ridiculously stupid policy of strengthening the people who want to kill you.
Trump must show Putin and the Russians that you can stand up to them. If he fails to do so, he will face the criticism that he’s been played by the Russian strongman.