We Still Can’t Trust Putin

Vladimir Putin is a war criminal, a liar, a tyrant, a mass murderer of his own people and thousands more in Ukraine and beyond. Not content with the billions he’s acquired as the head of one of the world’s worst kleptocracies, he invaded and annexed the territory of two sovereign nations – Georgia and Ukraine – and is approaching the fifth anniversary of his full-scale invasion of Ukraine with no end in sight. He has rejected or broken every U.S.-proposed ceasefire, including this week’s short-lived “energy ceasefire,” while Ukraine has always agreed.

In short, the man cannot be trusted – not now, not ever.

That rather obvious observation isn’t just a problem for Ukraine or Europe; it’s also an enormous challenge for the United States. Our security interests are under constant threat from Russia – whether through the increasingly bold hybrid attacks on our NATO allies, cyberattacks and espionage within our own borders, or by providing Tehran with the intelligence and targeting information it needs to kill American servicemen.

Ukraine’s fight is America’s fight, and its defeat would be our defeat. If Russia is given even tacit license to seize the sovereign territory of a European democracy that borders NATO, why would Putin ever stop at Ukraine’s borders? For an authoritarian who only respects force, the only logical next step would be to continue probing the defenses of vulnerable countries like Moldova. Beijing will no doubt conclude that the time is ripe to seize Taiwan and assert control over the Indo-Pacific.

And as our friends in Poland and the Baltics are all too aware, Russian victory in Ukraine will give Putin the green light to try to break up the NATO alliance once and for all: most likely, through a provocation that would demand the invocation of Article 5, on the bet that NATO will be too divided or intimidated to do so. If any of that happens, America will no longer be able to claim the mantle of leader of the free world, and our security, freedom, and prosperity will be in grave danger.

One of the reasons the American people brought President Trump back to the White House was to restore the “peace through strength” model that has kept us safe, prosperous, and free. Remember: Putin invaded Ukraine first under Obama in 2014, and then under Biden in 2022. That’s no coincidence – and Americans could see that the appeasement-first approach of the Biden Administration was inviting aggression in the world and leaving America and our allies vulnerable.

Peace through strength means saying enough is enough to the Iranian regime that has sought to destroy our country for the past 47 years and that was determined to obtain nuclear weapons so that it could bend the world to its monstrous will.

Peace through strength means siding with our ally Israel, in the fight against the Iranian proxies who committed the atrocities of October 7 and are dedicated to the destruction of the Jewish state and the Jewish people.

And peace through strength means ensuring that Vladimir Putin – a man who is functionally an enemy of the United States and is without a doubt an enemy of the civilized world - cannot subjugate a sovereign nation and get away with it.

America’s interests are deeply tied to Ukrainian victory. Let’s put America first and give Ukraine whatever it needs to win this war.