URBANA, ILLINOIS/BERKELEY, California/KYIV –
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has claimed that he could end the Russia-Ukraine war in a single day.
While he has yet to outline the specifics of his plan, some of his advisers have suggested that he intends to pressure Ukraine to accept territorial losses and agree to non-NATO status in exchange for Russia halting its military operations. If Ukraine rejects the deal, the United States will cut military and economic aid. If Russia declines, the U.S. will provide Ukraine with more advanced weaponry.
Unfortunately, this approach is based on a flawed assumption. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s primary goal is not territorial expansion but the subjugation of the Ukrainian people, effectively erasing Ukraine as a sovereign, independent entity. The atrocities committed by Russian forces in occupied eastern Ukraine — torture, rape, extrajudicial killings and kidnappings — offer a grim preview of the future that awaits should Putin prevail.