Opinion: How Will 'A Just and Lasting Peace' in Ukraine be Crafted?
Will China step in as Europe's protector if America steps away? Will rates of nuclear proliferation explode worldwide? What's a person to do?
By Denise Rivette
A phrase that Ukrainians and other Europeans are using when discussing how to end the war in Ukraine is “a just and lasting peace.” That is what Ukraine and Europe are asking for and what they and the rest of the world deserve. First and foremost, any cease fire or peace treaty must provide justice to the injured party, Ukraine.
Does requiring Ukraine to sign over rare earths rights as a condition of negotiating peace treaties or security guarantees fit the legal definition of duress?
As we Americans consider what justice might look like in a settlement between Ukraine and Russia, let’s ponder how we would approach a situation where a future Mexico gains the competitive edge over the U.S.A. in strength, technology and munitions. Imagine if that future Mexico desired to repatriate former Spanish holdings in the southern United States and decided to start by taking a run at all the territory 100 miles on either side of the Rio Grande River and inland from the Gulf Coast from Brownsville to New Orleans. What would we do if Mexico actually invaded the United States and secured control over that territory by force and, in the process, 30,000 Americans were killed and 5,000 American children were swept into Mexico and declared Mexican citizens. How many children would we leave behind in the care of our adversaries and how much land would we cede to them to secure peace? Would we forfeit a major shipping port because other nations declare it is the quickest/easiest way to end hostilities? What guarantees would we want from Mexico and the world that Mexico wouldn’t try to occupy more territory in the future?
According to a December 8, 2024, Politico article, “Zelenskyy said 43,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed and 370,000 wounded. That compares with 600,000 dead and wounded reported for Russia.” Civilian casualties are not included in those numbers. 20,000 is the widely reported number of Ukrainian children kidnapped by and relocated to Russia. According to a July 19, 2023, New York Times article, “The three ports that ring Odesa are Ukraine’s largest and include the only deepwater port in the country. Before the war, about 70 percent of Ukraine’s total imports and exports were carried out by sea, and nearly two-thirds of that trade moved through the ports of Odesa.” Odesa remains under Russian attack. Trump shut down any talk of Odesa in the February 28 Oval Office meeting.
Secondly, to meet the minimum standard for a peace treaty, it must provide for a lasting peace. Unless the United States is prepared to work with Europe to provide security guarantees, there will be no lasting peace. Putin has proved that at least 25 times over the last eleven years. It seems a reasonable negotiating position for Ukraine to want to link a peace treaty to security guarantees and economic recovery commitments.
Part of what Zelenskyy was trying to say in the Oval Office meeting that hasn’t received much attention is that Ukraine has developed some cutting edge technology and experience in drone warfare that would complement United States’ conventional air power. He suggested that our countries could work together to develop in Ukraine a prototype of the Iron Dome Missile Defense Shield Trump has ordered for the United States. Working out the bugs of a shield system on a smaller scale while physically protecting Ukraine and literally protecting the values of the free world and our relations with our proven allies, seems a prudent course of action that might save Americans money in the long haul by correcting design flaws on smaller scale before implementing a larger scale Iron Dome in the United States as well as providing a deterrent from future Russian aggression on Europe’s eastern flank that would possibly allow for deployed American troops to be brought home and European bases to be decommissioned.
You can watch the entire Oval Office meeting between Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and U.S. President Donald HERE.
Not so long ago, there was a lot of media coverage about fears of the elite establishing a new world order. A new world order will surely arise if the United States turns its back on its European allies and the social framework of international law while building an alliance with Putin. Such a reality would mean Europe and other allies could no longer rely on the United States to protect them from nuclear warfare. That could lead to massive nuclear proliferation (and perhaps the commandeering of U.S. nuclear warheads deployed on foreign soil) as allied nation-states strive to fend for themselves, or it could lead our allies to turn to China for protection. Either scenario would change not only the world’s political landscape, but its economic landscape as well. Speculation is all over the map at this point as to how the United States pulling away from Europe would affect world stability, but there seems to be no doubt that it will have an effect.
While I was writing this, NBC's Meet the Press was playing in the background. On today’s show, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, referring to Zelenskyy stated, "Something has to change. Either he needs to come to his senses and come back to the table in gratitude, or someone else needs to lead the country to do that."
President Zelenskyy is the head of state of a country at war and should be treated with the same respect we expect for our heads of state. No head of state should be expected to grovel before another. Each should come to the table as an equal. This is one of the Western values that have provided for an extended era of relative prosperity and peace in a large portion of the world.
I stand by Ukraine; I stand by Zelenskyy; and I believe by doing so I stand for peace, American values and democracy itself.
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We know a "just and lasting peace" won't come about because of trump. trump works for Putin, and we know Putin only wants to subjugate Ukraine (for starters). America's influence is rapidly waning in the world (as the respect America gets), due to trump.