Iran and Russia Are Working Together To Kill Ukrainians – and Americans. This Cannot Stand.

This week, Russia fired around 200 Iranian-supplied Shahed drones on Ukrainian civilian targets – including a maternity hospital in Odesa. At the same time, Putin has been stepping up his assistance to the beleaguered Iranian regime, providing the satellite imagery, drones, and intelligence needed to target American forces in the Middle East.

For its part, Ukraine has been sharing its invaluable expertise in drone warfare to help five countries in the region cope with attacks by Iran; it is providing the U.S. with intelligence confirming Russia’s cooperation with Iran; and it is signing defense cooperation agreements with key U.S. partners in the region, including Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

On one side, an axis of murderous authoritarians; on the other, a resilient and proud democracy committed to the same civilizational struggle that America is fighting in Iran today. Seems like a no-brainer as to which side we should support.

Siding with Ukraine isn’t just the right thing to do; it’s the only strategic choice that makes sense. After four years and unfathomable amounts of wasted blood and treasure, Russia has suffered humiliating setbacks in recent months. Just last week, Ukrainian drone attacks brought an estimated 40% of Russia’s oil export capacity to a halt, a catastrophic development for a sputtering economy that’s heavily dependent on its energy sector.

This strike capped off an extraordinary breakthrough in Kyiv’s efforts to push back Russian forces in the Donetsk region, with Ukraine reportedly killing 6,000 advancing Russian soldiers between March 17 and March 20.

So why is there talk of the U.S. pressuring Ukraine to accept a deal that would cede the strategically critical Donbas region – including territory the Russians have not captured – to the Kremlin?

There can be no doubt: Settling the war in Ukraine on Russia’s terms, at a time when Russia is on the back foot, would fatally undermine the incredible progress the President has made in restoring American deterrence. It will embolden our adversaries around the world, including in Beijing. And it would hand a massive victory to an authoritarian state that is currently working with our enemy to kill American servicemen.

President Trump has always had a keen understanding that dictators only respect strength. This recognition was at the heart of the policies we pursued during my time as Secretary of State, and has underpinned the President’s campaign to degrade the nuclear and military capabilities of the Iranian regime.

Russia has long partnered with America’s adversaries to undermine our core interests. But by cooperating with Iran in an active war, it is now directly threatening American forces. According to President Zelensky, Putin is even trying to “blackmail” the United States, offering to end its Iran assistance if the U.S. stops providing intel to Ukraine. What would it say to the world if we were to give the impression that such threats are effective?

History shows that appeasement is always more dangerous than standing one’s ground. But given the Kremlin’s increasingly weak hand, it’s not only dangerous – it flies in the face of reason.

Ukraine is inflicting ruinous damage upon Russian forces, with leaked military records showing that the odds of surviving on the front lines are close to zero – and indicating that the commonly cited figure of 1.2 million Russian casualties may be too conservative an estimate.

Putin’s position isn’t just weaker today because of the battlefield advantages Ukraine has gained; it’s already reaping the consequences of allying itself with the Iranian dictatorship. If the Islamic Republic falls like the Assad regime before it, Russia will lose another critical military and economic partner in this highly strategic region.

Vladimir Putin excels at bluffing as well as bullying, but make no mistake: He is not acting from a position of strength. Having watched the U.S. and Israel decapitate the entire Iranian leadership, he’s probably pretty nervous right now.

We should be exploiting that fear by imposing real costs for actively aiding an enemy of the United States and making it eminently clear that the days of authoritarian regimes acting with impunity are over.