Since President Trump returned to the White House last year, he has vacillated between appeasing President Vladimir Putin of Russia and reluctantly helping Ukraine defend itself against Mr. Putin’s invasion. Over the past two weeks, Mr. Trump has taken a sharp turn toward appeasement. Desperate to reduce gas prices before the midterms, he is now helping Mr. Putin wage war.
On Oct. 9, Mr. Trump announced he would lift sanctions on Russian diesel exports to the United States, a step that will help Russia’s economy and war production. On Friday, he went further, signing an executive order that waived other sanctions. He has also taken steps that do not have a clear economic rationale and instead seem designed simply to please Mr. Putin. Among them are new service restrictions for Starshield, the Elon Musk-run satellite network that Ukrainian forces use to defend against Russian airstrikes. Although the White House denies involvement, Mr. Musk said that only the U.S. military, and ultimately the president, could order service restrictions.
Let us be clear about the scope of Mr. Trump’s cynicism. He is aiding an autocratic leader and dangerous adversary of the United States who is waging a brutal war against a democratic neighbor. Mr. Trump is doing so partly in the faint hope that gas prices, which have jumped because of his reckless war in Iran, will fall over the next two weeks and help Republicans avoid big losses in the midterm elections. He is damaging America’s national interest, and likely sacrificing Ukrainian lives, for his own political interests.
The stakes in Ukraine are much larger than the fate of one nation. The war is a test of whether authoritarian expansion can succeed by military force in the 21st century — or whether the West can rally to protect democracy and innocent lives.
Even some congressional Republicans are aghast. Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina called the sanctions waiver “beyond irresponsible” and “unconscionable.” Senator Ted Cruz of Texas said it was a mistake. Two other Republicans — Senator Kevin Cramer of North Dakota and Representative Mike Turner of Ohio — called for an investigation into the Starshield disruptions. Senator John Cornyn of Texas said, “Lindsey would be appalled,” referring to the late Lindsey Graham, a Trump ally who frequently pushed him to be tougher on Russia and sometimes succeeded. (The sanctions that Mr. Trump halted last week stemmed from a law that he signed just last month and that is named for Mr. Graham.)
We regret that most Republicans, including the party’s House and Senate leaders, have not displayed similar independence and moral clarity. A functional Congress would quickly pass legislation constraining Mr. Trump, on both Russian sanctions and Ukraine’s satellite access.
Mr. Trump’s latest policies are particularly disappointing because Ukraine has made progress this year. Its forces recaptured roughly 400 square miles of territory between January and mid-October, and its drones have inflicted damage deep inside Russia. With help from the United States and Western Europe, Ukraine has a chance to turn Mr. Putin’s war into a humiliating stalemate or defeat.
Mr. Trump’s solicitousness of Mr. Putin instead encourages him to become more aggressive, in Ukraine and beyond. Seeing the West as weak and divided, Mr. Putin has started a campaign of barely disguised attacks and provocations against other parts of Europe. Russian drones, missiles and fighter jets have intruded on NATO airspace, in Poland, Romania and the Baltics. Last week, suspicious drone attacks in the Black Sea, just outside Bulgaria’s territorial waters, damaged one commercial cargo ship and sank another. This summer, Germany said it had discovered armed Russian drones around an airport near Leipzig, apparently waiting for remote instructions to attack. “We are already in conflict with Russia,” Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany has said.
Mr. Trump, by contrast, offered this disingenuous assessment on Monday: “Russia, frankly, has been fine on Ukraine.” He has dressed up his pro-Moscow appeasement as a strategy for achieving peace. On Sunday, he wrote on social media that he had waived the sanctions because he did not want “to do anything that will drive, foolishly, Russia away from the bargaining table.” If Mr. Trump actually believes this, he is misreading Mr. Putin, who responds to meek entreaties for peace by waging more war.
Both the Biden administration and Ukraine’s supporters in Congress have rightly drawn limits on American support for Ukraine. It is not a member of NATO, and the United States should not send troops to fight in this war. Much of the financial support for Kyiv should come from Western Europe, which for too long has outsourced the continent’s protection to the American military. Nonetheless, Washington can and should play a crucial role in defending Ukrainian democracy against Russia’s aggression.
Most urgently, the White House should reverse the Starshield restrictions. Ukraine relies on the satellite network to defend itself against Russian missile attacks. The slowdown “will cost many of us our lives,” a Ukrainian military officer told Politico. The United States and Europe should also work together to help Ukraine rebuild its stock of missile interceptors and long-range missiles. And Washington should continue to punish Mr. Putin, the oligarchs who support him and Russia’s war-making economy.
The way to do so is straightforward: enforcing the law named for Mr. Graham. It targeted Russia’s energy, which helps finance the war in Ukraine, with sanctions and other measures. Those punishments were set to take effect Sunday, until Mr. Trump signed the executive order.
The people of Ukraine have shown inspiring bravery over the past four and a half years. They defied expert predictions and rebuffed Russia’s invasion. More than 125,000 of them have been killed, and another half million have been wounded. Many live with daily fear and are preparing for a difficult winter. They are fighting a battle that benefits the entire free world. Mr. Trump is fighting only for himself.
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