OPINION:
One could easily change a few words on the Times’ Monday front-page headline and make it relevant for 1938, too (“Russia: Ukraine can exit, minus Donbas,” Aug. 28). Simply make it “Germany: Czechoslovakia can exist, minus Sudetenland.”
In 1938, Neville Chamberlain believed Germany, concluded the Munich Agreement with Hitler in September of that year and proclaimed, “Peace for our time.” Ceding the Sudentenland left the rump state of Czechoslovakia without defensible borders. In March 1939, less than six months after the Munich Agreement, pro-Nazi Slovakia proclaimed independence from Czechoslovakia and Hitler moved in and took the rest of Czechoslovakia without a fight.
Similarly, a ceasefire accord today — which would require Ukraine to cede the portions of the Donbas it still controls — would mean giving up Ukraine’s strongly fortified defense line. This would allow Russia to resume its attacks on Ukraine from a much stronger position — in a matter of years, if not months.
Any ceasefire in the Russo-Ukraine War must allow Ukraine to maintain its current positions in the Donbas and be accompanied by an international peacekeeping force monitoring compliance.
History has not dealt kindly with Chamberlain, a fact that President Trump should keep in mind.
CLARKE ELLIS
Bethesda, Maryland
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