Let us assume that President Donald Trump is correct and that the war, killing and carnage arising from the war in Ukraine must be stopped. The question is, at what cost and to whom?

Russia occupied Crimea in 2014 and controls about 20 percent of Ukraine covering Donbass and Donetsk. These three regions have substantial Russian-leaning populations.

The hard fact is that Russia is the clear aggressor. It and President Vladimir Putin could argue that Ukraine’s entry into the European Union and especially NATO was a direct threat to Russia. Putin made his complaints about NATO’s threat to Russia and its ignoring of Moscow’s interests known in his 2007 Munich Security Conference remarks.

Yet, Putin’s arguments rest in the notion that Russia is Ukraine and Ukraine is Russia. Without Ukraine, Russia will never be whole. Trump recognizes this view. In October, he said Ukraine was always “the apple” in Putin’s eye.

Sometimes the human element is never understood despite facts and reality. Putin may reflect this vis a vis Ukraine. Trump too has idiosyncratic views that clash with reality. His obsession with

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