I’m a Republican Who Still Supports Ukraine. America Must Not Give In to Putin.

Opinion|My Fellow Republicans and President Trump, We Must Stand Up to Putin

Three years on, the war for Ukraine continues to burn, consuming lives and the wealth of nations. The diplomatic rupture last month in the Oval Office beamed live around the world ignited a fierce debate about America’s allies, enemies and interests in the 21st century. Now, Vladimir Putin is dragging his feet on a full cease-fire deal, hoping the United States will cave to his demands for a complete end to military and intelligence assistance to Ukraine.

I welcome President Trump’s efforts to fulfill his promise to end this war. However, the United States must also firmly oppose any approach that rewards Mr. Putin for his ruthless aggression. In recent weeks, too many of my fellow Republicans — including Mr. Trump — have treated Russia with velvet gloves, shying away from calling out Mr. Putin’s flatly illegal war and even blaming Ukraine for starting it. As the White House works to end the fighting and forge a just and durable peace, my party must reaffirm our commitment to opposing Mr. Putin’s expansionism and to supporting Ukraine’s defense of its sovereignty.

That starts with honestly acknowledging the origins of the present conflict. Moscow’s aggression toward Ukraine goes back more than a century, when the Soviet Union crushed the Ukrainian independence movement. Under Joseph Stalin’s repressive rule, an estimated three million to five million Ukrainians died during the infamous Holodomor “death famine” of the 1930s. Until the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, life in Soviet-controlled Ukraine was blighted by collectivization, disappearances, executions and gulags.

In 1994, after the Soviet Union’s dissolution, the leaders of the newly independent Ukraine, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States convened in Hungary to sign the Budapest Memorandum. This agreement extended explicit security guarantees for Ukraine — including a commitment by Russia to respect its borders — in return for Ukraine giving up its nuclear weapons. Turns out, it was another “peace in our time” moment.

Twenty years later, in 2014 — long after Ukraine had surrendered its nukes — the United States and the rest of Europe shamelessly abandoned these security commitments when Mr. Putin ordered the Russian military to annex and occupy the Crimean Peninsula. Speeches were made and a few sanctions imposed, but the West permitted Mr. Putin’s naked aggression to stand, paving the way for his full-scale invasion in February 2022.

This history makes clear that America has a moral obligation to continue providing aid to Ukraine until Russia commits to fair and just peace negotiations. That means including Ukraine in the conversation.