President Donald Trump must understand that nothing Russian President Vladimir Putin promises during discussions to end the war in Ukraine can be believed, The Wall Street Journal editorial board said.
Putin reportedly has promised that, in return for the eastern Donetsk region, he'll stop his assault on Ukraine and won't invade other countries.
In a Sunday editorial, the board wrote that Putin's "promises are worse than worthless."
"He has broken promise after promise to Ukraine and the West," the Journal's editorial board wrote. "This includes the 1994 Budapest Memorandum promising to defend Ukraine against outside attack, and multiple Minsk agreements.
"He wants Donetsk because he would gain at the negotiating table what he hasn't been able to conquer on the battlefield. It would also make it easier to take more territory when he or his successor think the time is right to strike again."
The board issued another warning.
"Mr. Trump has made his role as a peacemaker a major theme of his second term, and it's an admirable ambition," they wrote. "But the question is, as always, peace at what price? Cunning adversaries like Mr. Putin and China's Xi Jinping can sense when the desire for a Nobel Peace Prize can be exploited for far more substantive strategic gains."
Trump and Putin met in Alaska on Friday to discuss a potential peace deal in Ukraine.
Trump told Ukraine to give up hopes of getting back annexed Crimea or joining NATO as he prepared to host President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders in Washington on Monday to press Kyiv into accepting a peace deal with Russia.
Zelenskyy already has all but rejected the outline of Putin's proposals, including for Ukraine to give up the rest of its Donetsk region, of which it currently controls a quarter.
Special U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff said Sunday that Putin agreed to allow the U.S. and European allies to offer Ukraine a security guarantee resembling NATO's collective defense mandate as part of an eventual deal to end the 3 1/2-year war.
"For guarantees to have real deterrent effect, they would have to include foreign troops in Ukraine," the Journal's editorial board wrote. "Kyiv would need the ability to build up its military and arms industry. The U.S. would have to provide intelligence and air power to back up the ground forces.
"It isn't clear if Mr. Trump or Mr. Putin would agree to any of this, and without the U.S. playing a significant role, European leaders may not be willing to deploy troops."
Reuters and The Wall Street Journal contributed to this story.
Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.