Security guarantees<\/a> for Ukraine look as though they will include the United States\u2019 backing in some capacity.\u00a0<\/p>\nNATO Secretary General Mark Rutte referred to this as a \u201cbreakthrough.\u201d I\u2019ve received a few questions on this over the last few days that basically boil down to: \u201cIf Ukraine isn\u2019t going to win the war outright, why don\u2019t they just make a peace deal with Russia to end it?\u201d<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s why: Ukraine believes Russia is going to come back for another bite at the apple in a few years. In the same way Crimea in 2014 was not the end of tensions, this current iteration of the same war is not believed to be the end either. In the same way Russia used Crimea to launch the second invasion of Ukraine, it is widely believed Russia will use the Donbas to launch a third. Why do people think this? Because the Kremlin has publicly stated it believes Russia has constitutional governance over every square inch of all four of these eastern regions. <\/p>\n
So, the only way Russia won\u2019t come back and take another run at Ukraine is if there are security guarantees put in place by the West. That appears to be coming together, though there are some details that still need to be worked out, according to President Trump.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey’re not going to be a part of NATO, but we’ve got the European nations, and they’ll front-load it,\u201d Trump told Fox News. \u201cI don’t think it’s going to be a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s step one.<\/p>\n
Now comes the next phase, in which everything has to go right: talks between Russia and Ukraine. The White House has said the plan is for Russia and Ukraine to sit down in a bilateral format first, and then, if that goes well, the door is open for a trilateral with the U.S. to help seal the deal. <\/p>\n
\u201cUkraine\u00a0will never stop on the way to peace,\u201d Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday outside the White House. \u201cWe are ready for any kind of formats, but on the level of leaders.”<\/p>\n
So, Ukraine\u2019s ready to go. But what about Russia? French President Emmanuel Macron is not convinced.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have an American president, European presidents and a Ukrainian president all wanting peace,\u201d Macron said. \u201cFor my part, I have the greatest doubts about the reality of a desire for peace on the part of the Russian president, because as long as he thinks he can win through war, he will do so.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are lots of \u201cifs.\u201d Lots of \u201croom for error.\u201d But to give the White House credit where credit is due, things are moving in the right direction.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t take my word for it. Finland\u2019s President Alexander Stubb probably said it best: \u201cIn the last two weeks, we have made more progress than in three and a half years.\u201d<\/p>\n
More to come, and a lot more has to go right. But a window of opportunity is here. The only question is, will everyone play ball to seize it?<\/p>\n
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily of NewsNation. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NewsNation national Correspondent Robert Sherman has found himself on the front lines of some of the world\u2019s biggest stories: from Ukraine to Israel and across the United States. He shares<\/p>\n
Continue reading <\/use> <\/svg>Ukraine's window of opportunity<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1717,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.logicalware.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1715"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.logicalware.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.logicalware.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.logicalware.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.logicalware.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1715"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.logicalware.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1715\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1716,"href":"http:\/\/www.logicalware.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1715\/revisions\/1716"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.logicalware.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.logicalware.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.logicalware.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.logicalware.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}