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THERE’S NO WAY for me to address the reports about an apparent attempt by the Trump administration to launch a new “peace process” for Ukraine without confessing a personal bias.
Years ago, when commanding U.S. Army Europe, I worked closely with the Ukrainian army as they struggled to shed the dead weight of the Soviet military system and build something worthy of their emerging democratic nation. My closest partner in that effort was Colonel-General Henadii Vorobyov—a Ukrainian who had served years in the Soviet Army before his nation gained its independence. He believed, with passionate conviction, that Ukraine should have a capable, modern military grounded in Western values. We spent hours walking training ranges, poring over doctrine and leader-development techniques, and choosing the right soldiers to become part of a new NCO corps and the right junior officers to rise to the top of their command structure. Vorobyov is gone now, having died in 2016, but I think of him often. I imagine how proud he would be if he saw what his soldiers have endured since 2014—and how he might react to what some in Washington now propose for his nation.
Since February 2022, I’ve followed this war every day. Not casually. Not passively. Closely. I’ve watched Ukraine fight for its life in ways that remind me of why nations build armies in the first place: to defend their people, their land, their unique culture, their way of life. I’ve watched Russia shift from attempted blitzkrieg to criminal attrition, from incompetence to brutal strikes against civilians. I’ve traced the arcs of all the phases and campaigns—Kyiv, Kharkiv, Bakhmut, Robotyne, the failed summer offensives, the Black Sea successes—and often written about each phase.
And now, hearing the rumblings of a push toward a new peace initiative, something feels deeply wrong. . . .
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