Backtalk CHRISTOPHER RUDDY / PUBLISHER P Putin Can’t Afford Peace
resident donald trump has had a simple and bold plan to win the peace in the brutal war between Russia and Ukraine. In my opinion, Trump knew getting Presi-
dent Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the Ukrainians to nego- tiate was never going to be the problem. But Russian President Vladimir Putin would be. So, Trump seemingly castigated the Ukrainians at the
very same time he extended a very welcoming hand to Putin — a nonthreatening and nonjudgmental one at that. Trump’s maneuver was a brilliant one, including a
peace deal that would start with both sides agreeing to an immediate ceasefire. As expected, Zelenskyy quickly signed on. At Trump’s
demand, the Ukrainians even gave away a big chunk of their national wealth in a minerals deal with the U.S. Putin has talked a good game and still does. While
Trump and Zelenskyy took concrete steps toward peace, Russia stepped up its attacks against Ukraine. This contributed to the wider toll of the war on
Ukraine, which has seen hundreds of thousands of casu- alties, millions displaced, and significant damage to its civilian infrastructure. Russia’s own toll has been enormous, with estimates of
total Russians killed and wounded around 1 million men. With his proposals, Trump had offered Putin a rela-
tively easy off-ramp from his apparent suicidal mission. But the Russian leader doesn’t want a deal. A Russian-American businessman told me recently
Putin cannot end the war because his whole economy is now based on war. Russia has mobilized an army of 1.5 million men, has
a military budget equal to all European countries com- bined, and has a massive armament program underway making everything from drones to tanks to artillery shells — you name it. “It is absolutely imperative for Russia to continue to
rely on the military industry, because it [has] become the driver of economic growth,” Alexander Kolyandr, a senior fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis, recently said. “For a while, it will be next to impossible for Russia to
reduce military spending.” Does Russia eventually reduce its military-industrial
complex or retarget its forces against NATO? Earlier this year, Dutch Adm. Rob Bauer, a former
NATO military committee chief, warned that the alli- ance should “expect the unexpected” and urged mem- bers to begin preparations for a Russian attack.
98 NEWSMAX | JULY 2025
The risks of such a war are real. Trump believed he could end the war because of his
working relationship with Putin during his first term. But Putin has changed.
F
ormer British Prime Minister Tony Blair has said that Putin today is almost unrecognizable from the
man he knew in the 2000s. As Trump is discovering, Putin also is very different
from the man he dealt with previously. It is widely believed that Putin was encouraged to
invade Ukraine after he saw President Joe Biden order America’s humiliating exit from Afghanistan in 2021. Sensing weakness, he believed that Ukraine would
fall in a matter of days — a week at most — if he invaded. But with Zelenskyy’s resolve, coupled with immediate
backup from Britain (and still armed with those Javelin anti-tank missiles Trump had previously provided), the Ukrainians not only stopped the Russian invasion but repulsed them from much of their territory. Over three years later, Putin has now wasted over a
million Russian lives and untold national treasure on a folly of a war that will only give him a small portion of Ukraine if he agrees to a ceasefire. Putin needs war to survive. He has stated repeat-
edly he wants to rebuild the old Soviet empire, not just Ukraine. He wants to end America’s “unipolar” hegemony
around the world. He wants NATO to effectively disappear. Putin can only achieve these things by widening the
war, not agreeing to a peace deal now. The U.S. really has only one feasible response to
Putin: to continue arming Ukraine. If Ukraine were to fall because the U.S. withdraws, it
would be catastrophic (think Afghanistan by a factor of 10). If Putin gets Ukraine, he would only be emboldened
to take the Baltic States, Finland, Poland, and more. President Trump should be applauded for his efforts
to get both parties to the peace table. But if those efforts ultimately fail, only one person is responsible: Vladimir Putin. The U.S. need not escalate or de-escalate the war —
but just give the Ukrainians enough weapons to continue the fight. It is a war Putin started, and he alone must come to his
senses to end it. This may take longer than imagined. Christopher Ruddy is CEO of Newsmax.
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