As Ukraine enters the fourth year of its fight against Russia’s invasion, supporters around the world rallied to show solidarity. But this year, these protests carry even greater urgency as the U.S. turns its back on Ukrainian democracy.

Putin made his ambitions clear long before the full-scale invasion. In a 2021 essay, On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians, he dismissed Ukrainian statehood as an extension of Russia and argued that Moscow had been unfairly deprived of its imperial lands. Months later, he acted on those imperialist impulses, launching a full-scale invasion that displaced millions and plunged Europe into its worst conflict since World War II.

Now, even beyond Moscow, this narrative is taking hold in U.S. politics. Years of Kremlin disinformation are now bearing fruit, with U.S. President Donald Trump echoing Russian propaganda—calling Ukraine’s democratically elected leader a dictator and failing to blame Russia for the war.

Trump accused Ukraine of provoking the war, stating, “You should have ended it. Three years! You should have never started it. You could have made a deal.”

A Russian newspaper wrote, “For the first time since the Cold War, America has changed its tone with Russia. This marks one of Moscow’s biggest breakthroughs.”

Now, as Ukraine fights to defend its sovereignty, the war is being reframed—not by Moscow, but by Washington.

On Sunday, his special envoy, Steve Witkoff, declared that the U.S. is “very close” to a peace deal with Russia—one based on the Istanbul Protocol, which called for Ukraine’s capitulation and unilateral disarmament. After a three-and-a-half-hour meeting with Vladimir Putin earlier this month, Witkoff dismissed the war as unnecessary and........

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