On March 18, 2025, US President Donald Trump had an extended telephone call with the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, regarding how to end the US proxy war in Ukraine. The apparent outcome, as reported in the (functioning) foreign press, was an agreement that Russia would not attack Ukrainian energy infrastructure during the period of a ceasefire, while the US will end weapons shipments and intelligence sharing with Ukraine for thirty days once an agreement is reached.

Three years prior, in March, 2022— mere weeks after the Russians launched their SMO (Special Military Operation), Russia and Ukraine negotiated an agreement to end the war. In swift reaction, the Americans dispatched British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to end the talks so that the sides could get back to the war. US Under-Secretary for European Affairs, Victoria Nuland, later stated that the reason that the Americans ended the agreement was because it would have required the US removing offensive weapons targeting Russia from Ukraine (link was disappeared).

But even the New York Times eventually got around to reporting the agreement (link above). At the time that the deal was written, and before the Americans and the Brits ended it, somewhere around one million Ukrainians who are now dead were alive. The nation of Ukraine was relatively undestroyed. And Europe wasn’t yet channeling the interwar period in which WWII was conceived. A peace deal in March, 2022 would have tremendously benefitted Ukraine.

For Americans who are reluctant to accept this framing, following the launch of Russia’s SMO, three foreign leaders, Angela Merkel (Germany), Francois Hollande (France), and

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