Aug 23, 2025
Embarrassingly, special envoy Steve Witkoff said Sunday that Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to allow security guarantees. “Allow.” Really, Putin would allow security guarantees. Forget what Putin might have said to Witkoff, the special envoy reported his understanding as if it were some type of good news. Who or what does Witkoff think he represents? The United States is the superpower; what Putin thinks he can “allow” doesn’t matter!
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says, among other things, that Russia must be a part of designing security guarantees. You have to hand it to him, Lavrov is so good at keeping a straight face while speaking absurd nonsense. The genocidal murderer expects to have a role in constructing his prison cell. You can’t make this stuff up. Yet it is reported like serious news.
And there is nothing new in Putin’s latest rejection of President Trump’s peace deal and refusal of U.S. security guarantees for Ukraine. As long as people listen to Putin, he is in control and continues his killing.
Russia shouldn’t have a say.
In what reality should the war criminal have a say in how to defend against his crimes?
The barbaric aggressor started this unjustified war, a war that has proved Russia can kill and rape civilians, abduct children, destroy hospitals, schools, and apartment houses, but does so while proving it is anything but a superpower.
Russia’s perception of itself was clear when the soldiers in their armored tanks rolled into Ukraine in February 2022 with their dress uniforms for the anticipated parade down Kyiv’s parade route on Khreshchatyk the following weekend. Those dress uniforms were likely buried along with those soldiers.
Russia is a shadow of what it wants the world to believe. Russia is crumbling, its economy is on its heels, its military has numbers enough that the accumulating bodies of its soldiers and mercenaries are keeping it in the war, but its accomplishments are marginal. The people of Russia are being squeezed.
In a country justly described as a gas station with weapons, the new phenomenon has Russian cars lined up for miles, hoping to get gas.
Putin has no cards. But he is the master of the bluff.
How many times will that bluff get Washington to back off from taking action?
After what appeared to be a spasm of common sense and emerging strength, Washington seems to be negotiating with itself, with the Europeans trying to get President Trump to do the minimum required.
Putin will only take threats seriously when they are applied. In the meantime, he sees Western weakness and division, with no genuine strategic objective of stopping him.
By most definitions, the United States is the world’s superpower, but that means nothing if timidity is its policy. What good is it to be a superpower if the enemy plays you?
Putin continues in control, killing and destroying, while his bluff holds.
When will it be clear to Washington that Putin is not interested in a “lasting peace”? He has no interest in it. So, what are we going to do about it?
The only way to stop Russia is to defeat Russia. Applying serious sanctions would send a message and damage the Russian economy further, but the war will not be won anywhere but on the battlefield.
For 15 years now, Washington and the West have had an agent capable of defeating Russia if only it were given, provided, or sold the weapons needed to do so.
As long as Putin and Lavrov can carry on their bluff, innocents are being killed, children are being abducted, infrastructure will be destroyed, and, as is now happening, Russian drones are hitting Poland and an American non-military business in Ukraine.
As long as Putin’s bluff holds, Washington looks weak and the West leaderless, and Washington continues to jeopardize its own national security interests.
ROBERT MCCONNELL
Co-Founder, U.S.-Ukraine Foundation
Director of External Affairs, Friends of Ukraine Network