Trump and Zelensky must put national interests ahead of emotion

The stakes are too high — for the U.S., Ukraine, Europe and world peace — for President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky not to repair their relationship. American support for the Ukrainians defending their country must resume.

There will be no just and lasting peace if Trump and Zelensky don’t quickly reconcile their differences. Handing a political and military advantage on a platter to Russian autocrat Vladimir Putin could quickly lead to a new genocide of Ukrainians by Russian soldiers and foreign mercenaries.

If that happens, the majority of Americans would view the resulting triumph by Russia and the complete collapse of Ukraine’s independence as a premeditated betrayal of American values. It could become Trump’s Afghanistan, with the political effect many times worse for him than the fall of Kabul to the Taliban was for former President Joe Biden. 

Bolshevik Russia committed a genocide in Ukraine in the 1930s, ordered by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. Millions of Ukrainians starved to death. Putin is now accused of horrific war crimes committed by his troops in Ukraine. If Putin gets his way and Ukraine becomes a historic debacle, Trump, the Republican Party and the U.S. will pay the same horrific price as all Americans paid after the sellout of Eastern Europe to Stalin by President Franklin D. Roosevelt during World War II became known. The appeasement of the murderous Soviet dictator led to the enslavement of millions of people by Communist regimes. 

Stalin’s promise to FDR of post-war peace was a cruel joke. No one got a Nobel Peace Prize. Every country dominated by Soviet Russia conducted a murderous purge of political opponents. In Europe, most victims of Communist repressions were innocent Christians. As the Cold War progressed, American voters of Eastern European heritage largely abandoned the Democratic Party.

I understand why Trump wants to end the war in Ukraine. He wants the war to end fast because young people are dying on both sides, and he wants to focus on rebuilding America’s economic, political and military power. The war’s end on the correct terms and with greater military expenditures by European Union members would be in the interests of America and Ukraine.

Unfortunately, as last week’s meeting at the White House showed, the peace effort has moved in a wrong and dangerous direction. Personal emotions and American domestic partisan considerations took center stage to the detriment of the national interests of both countries. I blame it on bad advice from Trump’s and Zelensky’s closest aides. I also blame it on the Kremlin’s successful disinformation warfare that targeted far-right Republicans. 

I have worked for 50 years to counter Soviet and now Russian propaganda as a journalist, interviewing Lech Walesa, future Pope John Paul II and George H.W. Bush. I worked during the Reagan administration as part of the Voice of America team that helped to win the Cold War, and I closely follow events in Ukraine.

Putin’s propaganda lies, now being repeated by Tucker Carlson and other right-wing partisans, are almost identical to Stalin’s lies. They are beyond contemptible, yet many Americans are deceived and repeat them on social media. Something is terribly wrong when the New York Post has to remind its readers that Putin, not Zelensky, is the dictator.

Trump and Vice President JD Vance must move fast to defuse the quarrel with Zelensky to avoid history’s harsh judgment. Zelensky must likewise immediately try to resume a dialogue with Trump, knowing that NATO membership is not a realistic goal now. Even though Zelensky is leading a courageous fight for his country’s survival, if Ukraine falls to Putin, he will also be blamed for not being more diplomatic at the White House meeting, not using an interpreter and allowing himself to become too closely aligned with the Biden administration to the ire of Trump and the Republicans.

However, most of the blame will be attached to Trump and Vance when it becomes apparent, and it will, that Putin cannot be trusted, and the U.S. withdrawal of support for Ukraine ends in disaster — because, sooner or later, Russia will resume aggression and genocide unless it knows that its aggression would be repulsed. 

The mistaken idea that Russia could become a strategic counterweight in America’s competition with China is another example of successful Russian influence operations. Putin’s regime cannot survive without China’s support. Europe has problems, but they are no greater than America’s problems. Our American values are far closer to European values than to those of Russia. Europe and the U.S. will always be the closest allies. Putin will never antagonize China to help the U.S. because Russia would never win a political or military conflict with China and cannot risk it. Those who think they can trust Russia or Putin are repeating the mistakes made by FDR, President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama.

Former Polish President Lech Walesa and dozens of former Solidarity labor union movement activists who were political prisoners of the Communist regime wrote a letter to Trump this week expressing “horror and distaste” after watching Zelensky’s treatment at the White House. It reminded them how they were treated during interrogations by Communist secret police and judges. Israeli politician Natan Sharansky, a former Soviet dissident, had a similar reaction.

Their statements should be a wake-up call to Trump’s advisors, who must develop a just peace plan with Zelensky that he and Trump can accept and point to as their success, rather than being judged by the fiasco of last week’s meeting.

Ted Lipien was Voice of America’s Polish service chief during Poland’s struggle for democracy and its acting associate director. He served briefly in 2020 to 2021 as president of Radio Free Europe-Radio Liberty.