Russia Doesn't Want Peace
There is no negotiating with the aggressor. America must side with Ukraine.
Russia is not interested in peace, and it is time the current administration acts like it. On Saturday, Russian forces attacked Kyiv, killing two and wounding thirty-two people. The attacks, which come amid negotiations between the United States, Ukraine, and Russia, are yet another sign that Russia is not interested in a long-term peace with Ukraine. The Trump administration must come to terms with this painfully obvious fact.
Russian Aggression and War Crimes Against Ukraine
From its initial invasion in 2022, Russia has repeatedly demonstrated that it seeks to conquer Ukraine. In 2022, Putin gave a speech attempting to justify the invasion of Ukraine—an invasion he said would never happen—arguing that Ukraine was “historically Russian land.” Putin further argued that Ukraine only exists because Vladimir Lenin allowed the country to form in the 1920s. It is worth noting that one reason Lenin recognized the Ukrainian Soviet Republic was the already-established Ukrainian national identity. Putin went further, casting the Ukrainian government as illegitimate, saying, “There is no legitimate executive authority in Ukraine. “ As historian Timothy Snyder put it at the time, “This kind of language, that another nation doesn’t exist, is something we need to pay attention to because it usually precedes atrocious actions...”
NOTE BY AUTHOR: THE FOLLOWING SECTIONS CONTAIN GRAPHIC DISCUSSIONS OF ABUSE AND WAR CRIMES. DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Since the initial speech by Putin and the invasion that would follow it, Russia has continued to make claims on territory it doesn’t control and commit war crimes against the people of Ukraine. In 2022, United Nations experts determined that Russian soldiers had raped and tortured children. That same panel found that the victims of Russian sexual abuse were between the ages of four and eighty-two years old. Another report conducted by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner found that Russian forces accounted for “the vast majority of the violations identified.” In that report, investigators pointed to one incident involving a four-year-old girl who was forced to commit sexual acts on a Russian soldier after her mother and father were also sexually abused and raped.
In addition to sexual violence, the Russian Federation is responsible for indiscriminate bombings and killings of civilians. Describing the crimes allegedly committed, the report explained that:
“The relentless use of explosive weapons with wide area effects in populated areas has killed and injured scores of civilians and devastated entire neighbourhoods. The Commission documented indiscriminate attacks using cluster munitions, unguided rockets, and air strikes in the context of attempts by Russian armed forces to capture towns and smaller settlements. These weapon systems are highly likely to have indiscriminate effects and cause significant harm to civilians. Indeed, most of the verified deaths since the outset of the hostilities have been caused by these weapons.”
It is worth noting that these alleged crimes, which have been documented repeatedly by international observers, occurred in just the first year of the war. The reports I have cited thus far don’t include any of the alleged crimes committed by Russian forces from 2023 onward. Nor do they address the warrant by the International Criminal Court that was issued for Vladimir Putin’s arrest for his unlawful deportation and kidnapping of Ukrainian children. Russia started its war with atrocities and continues to follow through with even more monstrous acts.
Pointless Negotiations with a War Criminal
As it stands, Putin is an alleged war criminal who has continued to demand that the Ukrainians surrender their territory in Donetsk and Luhansk, even as the Russians fail to secure the territory totally. Even as the war in Ukraine has cost Russia nearly a million of its soldiers and 30 percent of its oil and gas revenue, Russia continues to push along in its foolish war of aggression. However, it is unlikely that the Russians can sustain this kind of fighting, though they will never admit it.
In a piece for the Washington Post, Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen and Republican Senator Mitch McConnell rightly pointed out that Russia is not operating in a strong position. They rightly note that roughly a quarter of Russian companies are bankrupt or facing bankruptcy. Russia has also been forced to sell gold to keep its finances out of the red, and its only aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov, has been out of commission since 2017. A Newsweek report from earlier this year went so far as to suggest that Russia may scrap the carrier due to its many performance issues.
With all these factors and more, Senators Shaheen and McConnell warn that “Putin may be playing for time, but he is not dragging out this conflict because it is his preferred tactic. He is dragging it out because he cannot achieve a decisive victory. He’s hoping that slow, grinding attrition will divide the West.”
Despite this, the Trump administration has attempted to appease Russia. At one point, the administration proposed that Ukrainian forces withdraw from the Donbas region. It is worth noting that Russia doesn’t control all of the Donbas region, and the United Nations Charter prohibits annexation of territory in wars of aggression. Article 2, section 4 of the UN Charter states, “All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.”
As such, Russia’s annexation of territory in Crimea in 2014 and its current attempts to gain more territory are not only horrific in their humanitarian implications but are blatantly illegal under international law. The Trump administration’s proposed peace plan, when it comes to the Donbas, is nothing short of victim-blaming and appeasement, and even then, Russia still has not committed to any peace plan.
The reality remains the same as it was in 2022. Ukraine must get the support it needs to defend itself from Russian aggression. So long as Russia can continue its blatant criminal acts, it will continue to push for more. If there is to be any international standard of justice, stopping Russian aggression must be America’s highest priority. Anything less is a strategic and moral failure.
