If Ukraine is forced to accept Russian control over 20% of its territory as part of a possible agreement between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, then the Russian president will come back for the rest. 1938 will repeat itself.
This was stated in his analysis for The Telegraph by Iain Duncan Smith, a member of the UK parliament. He urged the new US President Trump not to show weakness in Ukraine, because this will only encourage China to attack Taiwan.
Trump's biggest challenge will be how to deal with the new axis of totalitarian states. This axis includes China, North Korea, Russia, Iran, Myanmar: it represents the greatest threat the Free World has faced since the Cold War.
Now China is building up its army and navy at an astonishing rate to challenge the United States. The most critical threat is an invasion of Taiwan.
The interesting thing about brutal dictators is that they tell you up front what their ambitions are, just like in the 1930s. Western leaders didn’t believe Hitler and tens of millions died. Vladimir Putin couldn’t have been clearer about his plans for a greater Russia that would include Ukraine. Xi Jinping has made no secret of his plans to make China the dominant global superpower, militarily and economically. He believes that democracy and human rights are an anomaly, and his form of autocracy is the norm.
China is still a very close partner of Putin’s Russia. Both leaders watched the chaotic withdrawal of Western troops from Afghanistan and would come to the same conclusion: the West lacks leadership and perseverance.
It was this failure that encouraged Putin to invade Ukraine. Even now, Ukrainian men and women are fighting for every inch of their precious land, paying with their lives.
When I went to Washington in December 2023 with a group of conservatives, American congressmen told us that their priorities were Taiwan and Israel, the author points out. My response was that these three issues cannot be separated. The attack on Israel helped both Russia and China by diverting America’s attention from Ukraine and Taiwan. The resulting delay in approving vital military supplies cost Ukraine dearly in lost territory.
Trump’s plans to broker some kind of peace deal between Putin and President Zelensky are laudable on the surface. However, as Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher knew, the lesson of World War II was that peace without justice never lasts. Remember how Hitler was given the Sudetenland by France and Britain in an attempt to appease him—a year later Hitler invaded the rest of the country.
Ukraine deserves more than a short-term deal in which Putin is rewarded for his brutality. If Trump abandons Ukraine, Taiwan will be next. I pray that we do not repeat the mistakes of the past.