Anne Applebaum

There has to be NATO or something like NATO.

There has to be something that will prevent Ukrainians from fleeing the country once the borders are opened.

There has to be something that gives people the belief that they can invest in Ukraine, that they can rebuild Ukraine.

There has to be something that makes it a viable country.

A lot of people often compare Ukraine to South Korea, which is another country that was divided and part of it was occupied.

And nevertheless, South Korea remained a viable state and it went on to become a very rich country, very successful country, kind of culturally successful in lots of ways.

And people have said maybe that's a model for Ukraine.

And it's true.

You could imagine that kind of future.

Except that South Korea has American troops.

You know, South Korea has defense agreements.

You know, South Korea is defensible.

And Americans have been willing to defend it for many decades, or at least that's been the assumption of the North Koreans.

And you need something like that in Ukraine to make it viable.

And it just doesn't seem like Witkoff or Jared Kushner or whoever is doing this negotiation now has come up with a version, something that would give the Ukrainians that sense of stability.

So this is why people are talking about it as a kind of surrender dog.

So we give away land and in exchange for what?

For, you know, certainty that the Russians are going to invade again.

The problem with this document, then, as I've already said, there are all these weird clauses about U.S.-Russian deals that are going to be done and money that the U.S.

is supposedly going to spend in Russia.