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The Trump administration\u2019s desire to broker an end to the fighting and killing in Ukraine is admirable, but the way that it has gone about it has been problematic, to say the least. According to the text of a U.S. peace proposal published by Reuters<\/a> on April 25, the United States would\u2014in exchange for a permanent cease-fire\u2014provide de jure recognition of Russian control of Crimea and de facto recognition of Russian control of most of the Ukrainian regions of Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, and Kherson.<\/p>\n This would fly in the face of a 2018 declaration<\/a> by then-U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stating that the \u201cUnited States reaffirms as policy its refusal to recognize the Kremlin\u2019s claims of sovereignty over territory seized by force in contravention of international law\u201d and \u201crejects Russia\u2019s attempted annexation of Crimea and pledges to maintain this policy until Ukraine\u2019s territorial integrity is restored.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n The Trump administration\u2019s desire to broker an end to the fighting and killing in Ukraine is admirable, but the way that it has gone about it has been problematic, to say the least. According to the text of a U.S. peace proposal published by Reuters<\/a> on April 25, the United States would\u2014in exchange for a permanent cease-fire\u2014provide de jure recognition of Russian control of Crimea and de facto recognition of Russian control of most of the Ukrainian regions of Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, and Kherson.<\/p>\n This would fly in the face of a 2018 declaration<\/a> by then-U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stating that the \u201cUnited States reaffirms as policy its refusal to recognize the Kremlin\u2019s claims of sovereignty over territory seized by force in contravention of international law\u201d and \u201crejects Russia\u2019s attempted annexation of Crimea and pledges to maintain this policy until Ukraine\u2019s territorial integrity is restored.\u201d<\/p>\n Recognizing Russia\u2019s illegal annexation of Crimea would contravene international law, as Pompeo noted. It would encourage other authoritarian regimes to seize land\u2014say, China with Taiwan<\/a>\u2014and plant the idea that if they hold out long enough, then they can achieve eventual U.S. recognition, too.<\/p>\n This is both bad for U.S. national security and a terrible precedent to set. The idea of the United States recognizing the Russian annexation of Crimea also sticks in the craw of Ukraine\u2019s leaders and people.<\/p>\n That\u2019s because the Crimean Peninsula was the place where this all began<\/a>. Russian President Vladimir Putin\u2019s invasion of Ukraine started in Crimea in February 2014. By March, Russia had illegally annexed the peninsula and moved into the Donbas region in Ukraine\u2019s east. More than 14,000 Ukrainians<\/a> were killed between that time and the beginning of the full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022. Since then, tens of thousands<\/a> of Ukrainians have been killed and many more wounded.<\/p>\n A March 2022 poll published by the independent Ukrainian sociological organization Rating Group found that 80 percent of respondents said<\/a> that Ukraine should do everything possible to bring Crimea\u2014and the Russian-occupied eastern Donbas\u2014back under Ukraine\u2019s control.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile recent polling shows the number of Ukrainians willing to make some territorial concessions to end the war has risen<\/a>,\u201d journalists at the Kyiv Independent<\/em> wrote<\/a> recently, a majority \u2014 51 percent \u2014 \u201cstill oppose the idea under any circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n The future of Crimea and the other occupied areas is not just about territory. Millions of Ukrainians live there, and consigning them to live under brutal Russian oppression would be unconscionable for any Ukrainian leader.<\/p>\n U.S. President Donald<\/span> Trump had an important opportunity to reframe his thinking toward the war that Russia launched against Ukraine during his 15-minute one-on-one meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky when they were both in Rome on April 26 for Pope Francis\u2019s funeral. No cameras recorded their conversation, and no aides or vice presidents were around to stir the pot\u2014in marked contrast to the two leaders\u2019 last meeting<\/a> in the Oval Office<\/a> on Feb. 28.<\/p>\n In Rome, Zelensky had the chance to convince Trump that Ukraine has always wanted the war to end\u2014but in a way that ensures that Russia doesn\u2019t attack again.<\/p>\n But the day after his meeting with Zelensky, Trump claimed<\/a> that he \u201cthinks\u201d the Ukrainian president is prepared to give up\u00a0Crimea\u00a0to Russia as part of a possible deal\u2014despite the fact that Zelensky has rejected such an idea for months and Putin has demonstrated zero interest in ending the war, instead continuing<\/a> his unremitting bombing of Ukraine.<\/p>\n A particularly deadly attack<\/a> in Kyiv that killed 12 people just days before Trump\u2019s meeting with Zelensky in Rome prompted the U.S. president to write<\/a> on Truth Social: \u201cThere was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days. It makes me think that maybe he doesn\u2019t want to stop the war, he\u2019s just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through \u2018Banking\u2019 or \u2018Secondary Sanctions?\u2019 Too many people are dying!!!\u201d<\/p>\n Too many people indeed are dying because of Putin\u2014and yet the U.S. proposal tilts heavily in Moscow\u2019s favor, and not just on the Crimea issue.<\/p>\n The proposed deal would also preclude Ukraine from seeking membership in NATO, granting Russia de facto veto over Ukraine\u2019s aspirations and giving Putin something that he has long wanted. The draft calls for Ukraine to receive \u201crobust security guarantees\u201d from \u201can ad hoc grouping of European states plus willing non-European states\u201d\u2014but the United States is not explicitly mentioned. The plan also decrees that Ukraine \u201cbe fully reconstructed and compensated financially\u201d without saying how, and it would lift the sanctions that have been imposed on Russia since the initial invasion in 2014.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, despite these favorable terms at the bargaining table, Russia\u2019s obstinance hasn\u2019t changed. Putin continues to defy Trump\u2019s push to end the war, reportedly continuing to insist that Russia must take full control of all of the four regions of Ukraine that it doesn\u2019t totally occupy as part of any agreement to end his war, according to Bloomberg<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n The Russian leader also still refuses the U.S. call for a 30-day cease-fire that Ukraine has already agreed to. Instead, his latest gambit is proposing<\/a> a unilateral cease-fire for May 8 through May 10, which would overlap with his World War II victory parade scheduled for May 9 in Moscow. Zelensky wasn\u2019t falling for it\u2014nor should the United States.<\/p>\n \u201c[F]or some reason everyone is supposed to wait until May 8 before ceasing fire \u2014 just to provide Putin with silence for his parade,\u201d Zelensky\u00a0wrote<\/a> on Monday. \u201cWe value human lives, not parades. That\u2019s why we believe \u2014 and the world believes \u2014 that there is no reason to wait until May 8.\u201d<\/p>\n In an interview with Brazil\u2019s O Globo<\/em> newspaper this week, Putin\u2019s foreign minister reiterated<\/a> Russia\u2019s insistence that Ukraine be forced to reduce its military and engage in \u201cdenaazification,\u201d which is Kremlin-speak for demanding a change in Ukraine\u2019s government<\/a>.<\/p>\n Putin clearly wants to keep slaughtering innocent Ukrainians between now and May 8 and then resume after May 10. It is Putin, not Zelensky, who is responsible for the ongoing bloodshed. That has been true from Day 1. Trump, through a spokesperson, rightly responded to Putin\u2019s latest gambit by insisting on a \u201cpermanent ceasefire and to bring this conflict to a peaceful resolution.\u201d<\/p>\n That resolution should include forcing Russia to compensate Ukraine for the terrible damage, destruction, and loss of life that Putin has inflicted on Ukrainians. The way to do that it is to seize the $300 billion in frozen Russian assets<\/a> in Western financial institutions and make them available to Ukraine. Only after that should there be any consideration of partial sanctions relief. Meanwhile, an economic agreement<\/a> signed between Washington and Kyiv on April 30 gives the United States access to Ukraine\u2019s mineral deposits and implies undefined U.S. support for Ukraine.<\/p>\n Putin has never viewed Ukraine as a sovereign, independent state<\/a> after the breakup of the Soviet Union. But he also worried that a successful, democratic Ukraine on his doorstep could be a threatening alternative to the corrupt and authoritarian system that he oversees in Russia. And because of its history and strategic importance, handing over Crimea to Russia would be a huge political and security victory for Putin.<\/p>\n Crimea was part of the Ottoman Empire until Russia seized it in 1783. It became part of the Russian Soviet Federation of Socialist Republics after the formation of the Soviet Union in the 1920s, until Soviet leader Nikita Khruschev transferred control<\/a> to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1954. As the Soviet Union teetered in 1991, Crimea joined the rest of Ukraine in supporting independence in a Dec. 1 referendum.<\/p>\n Following the Soviet Union\u2019s breakup, the Russian leadership recognized Crimea as Ukrainian under numerous accords and treaties. Russian maintained its Black Sea Fleet headquarters in Sevastopol, an arrangement that was extended in 2010 in a controversial deal agreed to by Ukraine\u2019s pro-Russian former leader Viktor Yanukovych.<\/p>\n But Putin was spooked after Ukraine\u2019s Revolution of Dignity, a series of massive protests in the winter of 2014-15 that were prompted by Putin pressuring Yanukovych to not sign deals with the European Union. Only two years before that, Putin faced<\/a> large demonstrations in Russia against rigged and fraudulent elections that returned him and a pliant parliament to power. He feared that revolution in Ukraine could spread to Russia.<\/p>\n Putin subsequently used the Black Sea base at Sevastopol that Russia had maintained as a staging point for his takeover of Crimea in 2014. It then became a launching pad for Russian missile attacks after the full-scale invasion of the whole country in 2022.<\/p>\n When Estonia, Latvia,<\/span> and Lithuania were illegally annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940, the United States refused to recognize their absorption. It took nearly five decades for these states to regain their full independence, but the U.S. position was the right one. The United States should show the same determination and patience when it comes to Ukraine and all of its territory illegally seized by Russia\u2014including Crimea.<\/p>\n Putin thought that he could get away with taking over all of Ukraine in the aftermath of the abysmal U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. He also mistakenly thought that the invasion would be easy, over in a matter of days. The Ukrainians have proven him very wrong.<\/p>\n After his meeting with Trump on Saturday, Zelensky wrote on X<\/a>, \u201cVery symbolic meeting that has potential to become historic, if we achieve joint results. Thank you @POTUS.\u201d<\/p>\n If their Rome meeting leads the United States to reconsider its plans to recognize Russia\u2019s illegal annexation of Ukrainian territory and to view Putin\u2014not Ukraine\u2014as the guilty party, then it will indeed have proved to be historic. Above all, Putin should not be rewarded for the alleged war crimes, crimes against humanity, and acts of genocide that he and his forces have committed in a war that he started.<\/p>\n We should all hope that the Trump administration gets this right<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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