The United States is Appeasing Evil
A plea from Ukraine.
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American-Ukrainian relations are evolving faster than any observer can describe. I would like to offer here a view from Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine—a city that is almost nightly the target of air raids, whose central square is covered with ever-increasing numbers of small flags in memory of the fallen defenders.
The average Ukrainian perceives the United States as a model of democracy and a force that supports it in all corners of the world. We are accustomed to this regardless of whether Republicans or Democrats are in power, and we remember with gratitude the names of the most prominent American presidents of both parties. Therefore, the events of the last month have come as a shock. It turned out that everything we thought we knew about America could turn upside down in a matter of weeks.
It all started with the release of Vladimir Putin from international isolation. The criminal, terrorist, and organizer of genocide turned out to be a good guy worth calling. Then came last week’s American-Russian negotiations on the fate of Ukraine without Ukraine’s participation, which violated the principle that no one had doubted for years: nothing about us without us. It seems that we are experiencing a repeat of Munich in 1938: appeasing evil for the sake of preserving global peace.
This was exactly the course of action that Ukrainians feared at the beginning of the year, expressed in the appeal “Do not appease evil,” signed by more than 160 human rights activists, MPs, diplomats, academics, famous artists, leaders of large business associations, and various religious communities (Christian, Muslim and Jewish.) It is symbolic that Munich 2025 became the platform for proclaiming the new U.S. position—that same security conference was where the Manifesto for Sustainable Peace was proclaimed two years ago.
The next step was to accuse Ukraine of having started the war (classic victim blaming), and of not holding elections (the legal, security, political, and social reasons for the impossibility of holding elections during a full-scale war are explained in a statement by Ukrainian NGOs.) The democratically elected president of Ukraine was called a dictator. At the same time, no similar accusation was made against the Russian leader, who has been in power for 25 years. These and other statements, as it turned out, literally repeat Russian propaganda. We have never before seen the leader of a world democracy quote Russian state propagandists—who, by the way, always generously embellish their statements with calls to destroy America, turn it into nuclear ashes, and capture Washington, DC.
The next step was the proposal to sign an agreement on the transfer of the rights to Ukrainian mineral resources to the United States. Undoubtedly, Ukraine needs American investment and will be happy to attract it. But in this case, it was not about a mutually beneficial agreement, but rather about an attempt to take advantage of the victim’s difficult position, and to turn previously provided non-refundable military aid into an unpaid bill for future generations for an amount that is five times higher than American expenses. To put pressure on Ukraine to sign the agreement as soon as possible, the threat of disconnecting the Starlink communication terminals, on which the Ukrainian defense network is based, was used. Fortunately, through perseverance and negotiation skills, the agreement was brought to a mutually acceptable outcome.
The idea of transferring Ukrainian mineral resources to the United States was happily supported by Putin, who declared that he is ready to share with America the resources of the Ukrainian territories he occupied. Here it became clear that we are not dealing with peacemaking like that of Munich in 1938, but with an ordinary bribe following a theft: a new version of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.
Finally, the latest outrage at the time of writing is the diplomatic standoff of the U.S.-Russian alliance against the entire free world at the UN General Assembly. Even China, Iran, and Cuba abstained on the motion for a pro-Russian resolution offered by the United States. None of us thought we would live to see this happen.
Obviously, this is not the end of the story.
To understand the Ukrainian position, we must start with the fact that Putin is not fighting for territory. Russia has vast territories, undeveloped and neglected. Russia is fighting to destroy Ukrainian statehood and identity, as it did 100 years ago. For Ukrainians, surrender does not mean saving lives—rather, it means losing lives, because we will get tragedies like Bucha and Mariupol throughout the country, and the remaining Ukrainian men will rush to storm Central European capitals under the Russian tricolor flag. Surrender is not an option for us, because it means not life, but death. So Ukraine must resist, regardless of who our allies are and who not.
However, for supporters of freedom and democracy in America, a wake-up call should now be sounded. Regardless of how one views Ukraine (our country is very imperfect), uniting with an international terrorist, repeating his propaganda, copying his behavior, and jointly attacking the values of the free world and Western civilization means that America’s friends on every continent will be extremely surprised and disappointed. This is not just about values, but also about gains and losses. A world order based on agreements and rules is beneficial to the United States, because it is the foundation of free and secure trade and investments. A world order based on the right of the strong is not beneficial to the United States, because to prove that you are strong, you will have to shed American blood.
Now is the time for freedom advocates in America to speak out. The excuse that “we can’t do anything” is exactly what brought Putin to power in Russia and turned him into a dictator and warmonger of whom Russians will be ashamed for generations to come.
Valerii Pekar is a chairman of the board of Decolonization NGO, the author of four books, an adjunct professor at the Kyiv-Mohyla Business School and Business School of the Ukrainian Catholic University, and a former member of the National Reform Council.
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Thank you, my friend. So many of us share this shock that you express. Ukraine is truly fighting on the frontier for all of us. I am glad to see your voice here.
What is happening right now is so sad. Sad and frightening. Are the American voters aware of what they have unleashed upon the world? It will affect every single one of us. Once Trump has "dealt" with Ukraine and Gaza, where will his attention turn to? Who will be next? We, here in Europe, are aghast at the evil that is taking place. America, a country we have loved and respected for decades is abandoning its allies, turning on us and defending one who is a true dictator and it seems, no-one is doing anything to try to stop this. If Trump can wreak all this disaster in just over a month, what on earth will he be able to do in a year, never mind 4 years. May God protect us all.