Trump Needs To Get Putin’s Attention To Make Progress on Stalled Ukraine Peace Deal

President Trump entered office determined to get a cease-fire in the Russia-Ukraine war. He repeatedly said his goal was to stop the killing. Mr. Trump was even willing to concede a few wins to President Putin. He recognized Russian possession of Crimea, accepted that occupied territory in Eastern Ukraine would remain in Russia’s control, and agreed to leave Ukraine out of NATO.Mr. Trump’s concessions to Mr. Putin were so one-sided and painful that it was extremely difficult for President Zelensky. This led to a complete blowup at a White House meeting.Over the course of weeks, the Ukrainian president came to realize that his country had to be allied with America — even if the price was high. The alternative was to be ground down over several years by a much larger Russia.Presidents Trump and Zelensky at the Oval Office on February 28, 2025. AP/ Mystyslav ChernovHaving won Ukraine’s agreement for a peace plan, Mr. Trump must now get Mr. Putin’s agreement.In a series of deliberately insulting acts of violence against civilians and civilian infrastructure, Mr. Putin has continued his assault on Ukraine despite Mr. Trump’s public calls to stop the killing.The problem is simple. America does not have Mr. Putin’s attention. The Russian dictator is playing with and mocking us.To get his attention, we must first understand and accept who Mr. Putin is — and what he is trying to do.Mr. Putin was trained by the KGB and ultimately became a lieutenant colonel serving in East Germany. KGB officers were trained to see the West as a mortal enemy. They used whatever methods needed to keep the satellite nations under control. When necessary, they would torture and kill people.Recall, President George W. Bush said he looked into Mr. Putin’s eyes, saw his soul, and trusted him. Mr. Bush must have known nothing of Mr. Putin’s background. You don’t survive in the KGB by having a trustworthy soul — or perhaps a soul at all.Mr. Putin’s KGB years were important to him. As he said, “I was a pure and utterly successful product of Soviet patriotic education.”President Putin speaks during a meeting with Russian war correspondents at the Kremlin, June 13, 2023. Gavriil Grigorov, Sputnik, Kremlin pool via APHe sees a long struggle with the West as the heart of Russia’s destiny. He called the collapse of the Soviet Union “the biggest geopolitical catastrophe of the [20th] century.” He is resolved to re-establish the Russian Empire. At a minimum, this would include Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and part of Poland. At a maximum, he would try to destroy NATO as an inherently anti-Russian alliance.The systematic use of force in Chechnya, Georgia, Crimea, Syria, and a number of African countries has generally been met with little or no resistance from America or much of Europe. Mr. Putin was almost certainly surprised by the Western response to invading Ukraine. The previous eight years of occupying Crimea and fighting in Eastern Ukraine seemed to have elicited no serious consequences.At the same time, Mr. Putin knows he has more than enough nuclear weapons and delivery systems to be terrifying. The West must deal with him carefully because even the use of tactical or battlefield nuclear weapons would have horrifying consequences. India and Pakistan have about 200 nuclear weapons each. Russia has more than 6,000. As you listen to people worry about a possible Indian-Pakistani nuclear exchange (which would be horrible), multiply the consequences by 30 to get some sense of how disastrous Mr. Putin could be.Furthermore, Russian history is filled with bloody wars. Defeating Napoleon was a painful experience — including the French occupation of Moscow. Exhaustion from World War I led to the Romanov dynasty’s destruction and Vladimir Lenin’s rise to power. World War II cost the Soviet Union an estimated 24 million to 27 million lives. The victory parade in Moscow this weekend has real meaning for Russians. Russian troops march during the Victory Day military parade at Red Square in Moscow in 2019. AP/Alexander Zemlianichenko, fileThey deeply believe their commitment to crushing Nazi Germany was much greater than America’s. Losing men in Ukraine is just part of a long history of Russian victory through sacrifice and endurance.Given the reality of Mr. Putin’s life experience, words will not move him. He will grind forward until he can’t.America must raise the ante in real behavior. There are three action items that could begin to get Mr. Putin’s attention — and may convince him a cease-fire is in Russia’s interest.First, America must ship Ukraine the best equipment — in the largest possible quantity — as rapidly as possible. Ukraine must gain a huge technological battlefield advantage. Shifting the correlation of forces is exactly the kind of thing Russian military planners understand.Second, we must radically expand sanctions on Russia with a particular goal of cutting off all sources of foreign earnings. This includes pressuring China and India as intensely as necessary to cut off trade with Russia. A bankrupt Russia can’t fight the war. This may threaten Mr. Putin’s own political survival in office.Third, America must establish a screening system in the Baltic to track and find excuses for impounding every so-called dark tanker. These are ships that are carrying Russian oil to evade sanctions. Stopping them hurts Mr. Putin directly by closing off one of his last sources of hard currency.Mr. Putin will not react to words. He will react to deeds. The time has come to make Russia’s war on Ukraine incredibly expensive.

Trump Needs To Get Putin’s Attention To Make Progress on Stalled Ukraine Peace Deal

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