David Ignatius: I Applaud President Trump’s Efforts to End War in Ukraine

BRZEZINSKI: “A lot of moving parts here.”
SCARBOROUGH: “Oh, yeah, so many moving parts. It is it is important.
Also, David Ignatius to say that the Biden Administration, even going back to three years, understood — and we heard it from General Milley and others — understood that the Ukrainians weren’t going to get every Russian out of their territory and the Russians weren’t going to get to Kyiv. So there’s always been an understanding that there would at some point be a land swap. But of course, the question is, what does Ukraine get in exchange? What security — what security guarantees does the United States, does Europe, do allies all across the globe give in exchange for that land? And if it’s not something significant, then this is this is nothing short of appeasement. I think we will give something. But if we don’t, that would be a massive blow for democracy across the globe. Talk about what you’re hearing, where you think this is going.”
IGNATIUS: “So, Joe, we’ll have to see how Friday’s session in Alaska comes down. I think the first thing I’d say is that I applaud President Trump’s efforts to end this war. As says, this war is a bloodbath. Far too many people have died. And if the United States, through its power and influence, can bring an end, that’s a good thing. No question about that. The problem is that a peace that will endure between Russia and Ukraine has got to require Russian concessions. And so far, Putin has refused to make any. And he’s getting the reward he most wanted, which is readmission to the club of world leaders. He’s having a summit meeting with President Trump in the United States, being hosted by — by our president without having, as near as I can tell, made any concessions on the fundamentals. And then this talk about land swaps. So far, what we know is that Russia expects Ukraine to give up parts of its territory that Russian troops have conquered starting in 2014 and then continuing savagely since 2022, except for maybe slivers of unimportant territory in Russia. I’m not aware of any conceivable swap. The swap that’s important here is Ukraine might give up territory in exchange for real security and a guarantee that this war won’t start again after these negotiations. And that’s what I’m going to be looking for at Friday’s meeting. Is there any sign that Trump has learned that a peace that’s simply exceeding to Putin’s demands is not going to be a peace that lasts? If there — if there is pressure on Russia, if Russia really gives up something, above all, the desire to destroy Ukrainian independence, then we might have a real peace deal.”