(Column by longtime diplomat Michael McFaul, in TIME, Dec. 7) I hope Special Envoy Steve Witkoff made some progress toward ending the Russian invasion of Ukraine when he met with President Vladimir Putin in Moscow earlier this week. This barbaric war must end. I fear, however, that the negotiations that the Trump Administration has spent the better part of a year pursuing have not brought us any closer.
President Trump’s decision to engage directly with Putin is the right move. You cannot negotiate the end of a war by talking to only one side. But throughout 2025, Trump and Witkoff have been trying in vain to change Putin’s mind. The recently published 28-point plan was full of gifts for the Russian leader. This strategy of appeasement has not worked. In fact, it has the opposite effect. Putin has pocketed concessions offered earlier in the year and then asked for more. His most audacious ask has been to get the Trump Administration to pressure President Volodymyr Zelensky to give up the parts of Donbas in eastern Ukraine that Ukrainian soldiers still control.
If ending the war is still the goal, there are better strategies that the Trump Administration can pursue.
First, instead of trying to change Putin’s mind, the Trump Administration should focus on changing his capabilities. As long as Russia can keep taking territory in Ukraine—however incremental and irrespective of the massive numbers of Russians that must die to do so—Putin will keep fighting. He will only stop and earnestly negotiate when he no longer has the means to continue the war. A stalemate on the frontline is a necessary condition for serious peace talks. That can only be achieved if President Trump provides more and better weapons to Ukraine and imposes and enforces more and better sanctions against Russia.
On the military front, the Trump Administration must supply the Ukrainian air force with new stocks of AIM-9L and AIM-9M missiles for its F-16 fighter jets, which are now in very short supply, and deliver the first shipment of AIM-120 missiles much sooner….. [The full column is at this link.]
