Post #4408698

While President Trump is focused on Iran, a propitious moment to be the peacemaker in the Russia-Ukraine war could be slipping away. President Vladimir Putin of Russia and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine have been clear in recent months that they want the United States to re-engage and start intensive negotiations to bring the fighting to an end. They will not wait forever. Putin continues to speak approvingly of Trump, but some senior officials, as well as high-profile commentators, are highlighting U.S. assistance to Ukraine’s war effort and questioning whether the U.S. president can act as an effective and trusted intermediary. The Ukrainians continue to work closely with the Europeans on negotiating tactics. Some in Kyiv would like to see them more directly involved, which would widen the divide with Moscow, diminishing the chances for peace. The argument for immediate U.S. re-engagement is compelling for two reasons. First, the conflict has entered a dangerous escalatory spiral. Ukraine is stepping up its strikes against targets ever deeper in Russia, including energy infrastructure and military targets, with great effect. It is slowly cutting off the Crimean Peninsula from the Russian mainland. For the first time, Russians far from the front are feeling the direct effects of war. The Kremlin is urging calm, but it is clearly worried that Kyiv’s strikes could demoralize Russian society, as it promises ever harsher retaliation against what it decries as terrorist attacks. And retaliating it is. Russia is rapidly intensifying its aerial assault on Ukrainian cities and vital infrastructure, exploiting to devastating effect Ukraine’s dwindling stock of antimissile interceptors. The destruction is spreading and civilian deaths are mounting, as Ukraine scrambles to prepare for what it fears will be another bitterly cold winter. At the same time, fears of a widening war are proliferating in Europe, as Ukrainian drones and Russian missiles — deliberately or not — violate NATO allies’ airspace and the Kremlin threatens action against Ukraine’s European backers. Moscow condemns what it views as Europe’s militarization and preparations for war, while European capitals argue that their actions are a necessary response to Russia’s aggression and threats to European security. The situation is not directly analogous to the summer of 1914, but Barbara Tuchman’s “The Guns of August” stands as a cautionary tale of descent into an avoidable but ultimately catastrophic global conflict. Second, and perhaps counterintuitive, the war is ripe for resolution. Both sides need to end the conflict as soon as possible. Kyiv is running out of fighters and is finding it increasingly difficult to mobilize men for the front lines. The longer the war continues, the less likely the millions of Ukrainians who have fled abroad are to return. Continued conflict will only further raise the costs of reconstruction, which already run into the hundreds of billions of dollars. Russia is facing its own demographic crisis and mounting difficulties in manning the front lines. The economic costs are rapidly rising and becoming more apparent as the economy stalls. The failure to invest in cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence means Russia is falling further behind the United States and China, the two countries against which it measures its worth as a great power. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/03/opinion/international-world/trump-ukraine-russia-war.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share