Ukraine's Collision of Truths

Austin Bay on Mar 5, 2025

During his remarkable March 4 address to Congress, President Donald Trump said this about his efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine War: "If you want to end wars, you have to talk to both sides."

That's the truth for would-be peacemakers in any era. For what it's worth, a 2002 peacemaking handbook sponsored by the Anglican Church of Kenya said as much, and it was written with the goal of ending a tribal conflict in South Sudan. The peacemaker serves as connector and facilitator.

Trump's statement definitely applies to this horrible European war that involves nuclear weapons.

Trump genuinely deplores the human death toll, the enormous economic costs to Ukraine and Russia, and the prospect of a wider war with nuke-armed Russia fighting a NATO nation. In 1999, Trump told "Meet the Press" host Tim Russert, "The biggest problem this world has is nuclear proliferation." Trump's critics ignore the depth of his thinking about complex issues and consistently underestimate his diplomatic and economic skills.

I wrote this in February 2023: "... (F)rom Russia's February 2014 attack on Crimea to this very minute nuclear weapons have been the Ukraine war's deep global issue."

Now here's the very harsh truth a peacemaker must acknowledge: Ukraine is the victim of Russian aggression -- arguably, megalomaniacal imperialism.

Russia invaded Crimea in February 2014 and annexed it a month later. For the first time since the end of World War II, military aggression in Europe by a major European power had led to political annexation and imperial territorial expansion.

Was Vladimir Putin Nazi-like? Yes. Yet there was surprisingly little pushback beyond rhetorical condemnation. Hence a sad but relevant truth: Barack Obama didn't want to antagonize Russia. His March 2014 statement is frank and, if anything, a straddle similar to Trump's negotiating strategy. As Trump told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in their now famous White House collision, Obama gave Ukraine blankets, Trump's first administration gave Ukraine Javelin anti-tank missiles -- and a lot of ammo, anti-aircraft missiles and training assistance. Trump also encouraged Poland, Britain and other NATO nations to help. They did.

More ugly truth: Russia double-crossed the U.S., Britain and Ukraine. When Putin's Russia invaded Crimea, it shredded the 1994 Budapest Memorandum. That accord traded Ukraine's nuclear weapons for Russia's guarantee that it would not violate Ukraine's territory. Former President Bill Clinton signed the deal. The U.S., Ukraine and Britain thought they had solved the problem of ex-Soviet nukes and assured Ukrainian sovereignty.

Nix that. No wonder Zelenskyy distrusts deals with Russia and demands iron-clad U.S. and European security commitments.

Another non-negotiable fact: Ukraine 2025 is a nation in arms, waging a brilliant and courageous resistance against a megalomaniacal aggressor -- Putin -- whose dream is a resurrected Russian Empire. And he said as much in 2004.

At the strategic level, Putin made his war a direct challenge to the NATO alliance. He wanted to exploit divisions within NATO. He failed. Sweden and Finland now belong to NATO -- that's a strategic defeat for Moscow. Trump knows it and Putin knows it.

Huge spikes in energy prices fueled Putin's 2022 invasion. President Joe Biden's decision to stifle U.S. oil fracking and kill the Keystone pipeline gave Putin the money to risk an all-out invasion. We've a bitter example of an incompetent and ignorant White House inflicting major damage to U.S. foreign policy and our own domestic economy.

Trump's "drill, baby, drill" is an economic attack on Putin's war machine.

On March 3, during a Fox News interview, Vice President J.D. Vance said this about the Ukraine War: "This thing cannot go on forever. There aren't enough Ukrainian lives, there isn't enough American money, and there isn't enough ammunition to fund this thing indefinitely."

Several complicated truths back Vance's statement. Ukraine has suffered hundreds of thousands of casualties, dead and wounded. Its military faces manpower shortages. Frankly, brave Ukraine confronts military and economic exhaustion.

In his March 4 speech, Trump said he had received "an important letter" from Zelenskyy that said, "Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer. Nobody wants peace more than the Ukrainians."

I think that's true.

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To find out more about Austin Bay and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.

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