Negotiate with Whom?

The Americans who are increasingly discomfited with U.S. support for Ukraine’s defense against Russia in its war of territorial conquest — most of whom are self-identified Republicans — fancy themselves the only realists in the room.

They maintain (and have maintained with static determination in contrast to the dynamism of Ukraine’s battlefields over the last 20 months) that Ukraine’s defeat is preordained. Kyiv will have to sacrifice its territory and surrender civilians to Russia’s oppressive, brutal, and inhumane rule. It’s a matter of time before Kyiv surrenders. The stubborn refusal Ukrainians have displayed in their resistance to their own subjugation is a product of the West’s moral failures. This war will end in a negotiated settlement with Moscow, even if only temporarily. Cutting Kyiv off entirely and hastening Ukraine’s recognition that it is vanquished is the only humane course of action.