For peace in Ukraine, dont give Putin an off-ramp force him into a dead end

On Wednesday — in classic Trump fashion — the president turned the tables on the reporters gathered in Ankara to question him and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during the NATO summit.Trump asked the press pool what question he should ask Putin.A Ukrainian reporter shouted back: “When will he end this war?”Trump smiled and paused.“Good question,” he said.

“I don’t think I’ve ever asked him that.”And that is the crux of it.Russia can and must end the war it started in 2014 and escalated in 2022.Ukraine cannot do this, for it isn’t waging one.

If Ukraine were to stop defending itself, there would soon be no Ukraine to defend, and Russia’s appetite for war, already fed by stolen land, would only grow.This is the lesson World War II burned into history.The summit at Ankara delivered a noticeable change in rhetoric that American voters, who overwhelmingly support Ukraine and condemn Russia’s barbarism, have waited for.Secretary of State Marco Rubio described Kyiv’s deep strikes inside Russia as an escalation that can help end the war.What sounds paradoxical on the surface is indeed the most clear-eyed assessment of the path to peace any senior American official has offered in a long while.Russia’s talent for starting and losing wars is vastly underrated.

It lost to Japan in 1905 after assuming a smaller Asian power would be easily crushed.In 1989, it lost in Afghanistan.

When Russia is given an off-ramp, it escalates.We need to give it a dead end.Putin could halt the war today.

There is no permission to seek, no parliamentary vote to fear.He could purge half his generals and the rest would swear ever greater loyalty.

He could announce “mission accomplished” — the motherland is safe again — on any given Tuesday.The crowds would cheer and parades follow.On March 11 last year, the Trump administration put a cease-fire proposal on the table.

Ukraine said yes within 24 hours.Russia has spent nearly 500 days saying no, punc...