Many in Miami know appeasing a bully doesn’t work. It won’t work in Ukraine, either | Opinion

What is the U.S. interest in Ukraine, and should the United States provide Ukraine with military jets?

These are legitimate questions our country needs to ask and clearly answer, articulating the rationale for each.

What is the U.S. interest in Ukraine?

Ukraine is not a member of NATO. Its history ties it closer to Russia than to most other countries in Europe and certainly closer to the United States. Moreover, its recent governments, except for what we know of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, have been tainted with corruption. So, why should the United States have an interest in helping Ukraine defeat Vladimir Putin? The answer depends on Putin’s motive for invading Ukraine.

Some people believe that Russia’s “special military operation” is only about a territorial dispute with its neighbor Ukraine. They believe that Putin has no interest in invading, or extending Russia’s control over, countries that are members of NATO and that he will stop with Ukraine.

Other people believe that Putin manufactured a territorial crisis to legitimize the largest land invasion in Europe since World War II and that his real motives are to reestablish directly or indirectly, by annexation or by puppet-regimes, a Russian empire — be it the former USSR or Tsarist Russia — and to prevent democratic encirclement of countries around him, which could provide a safe haven for Russian dissidents who pose a threat to Putin’s political survival.

Which one of these explanations seems more likely: a “special military operation” over a territorial dispute with a neighbor or Putin’s expansion of his Russian empire?

If this is just a territorial dispute, then the U.S.’ interest, even though we sympathize with Ukraine, would be for the killing and destruction from the war to stop as soon as possible, even if that means Ukraine and Russia reaching a stalemate that likely concedes to Russia its territorial gains.

However, if the invasion is a manufactured crisis and Putin’s real motive is a greater Russian empire, then the United States has a national security interest to prevent Russian aggression and threats beyond Ukraine and towards NATO.

Should the U.S. provide Ukraine with military jets?

If the United States has a national security interest, then we need to ask: Will a stalemate that concedes territorial gains in Ukraine to Russia prevent Putin’s aggression and threats beyond Ukraine and toward our NATO allies? Will appeasement contain Putin?

Our local community has many residents who are refugees or descendants of refugees from countries occupied by fascist and Communist governments and who have first-hand familiarity with the history of appeasement. We should look to history to understand whether appeasement has been successful in stopping the military expansion of aggressors like Putin.

Does history tell us that appeasement works to contain aggressors like Putin or does appeasement embolden their further aggression?

To ask that question is to answer it.

There is nothing about Putin to justify trusting his word and hoping that his aggression will stop in Ukraine. That is not a serious strategy based on reality.

If Putin must be defeated in Ukraine to prevent his aggression and intimidation of NATO, then the United States should provide Ukraine with the military equipment necessary for it to defeat Russia and expel its troops from Ukraine, and that includes providing U.S. military jets.

A stalemate with Putin in Ukraine that cedes territorial gains to him is the appeasement that will fuel his further aggression toward our NATO allies.

Roberto Martinez is a former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida.