How to end the war in Ukraine

2. Ukraine recognizes Crimea as part of Russian territory. This might be hard to swallow rhetorically, but it amounts to accepting a reality. Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 without firing a shot, in part because most of its residents regarded themselves as Russians already. Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev gave the peninsula to Ukraine in 1954 as a gift, but it was purely symbolic; the Soviet Union was the operative power back then, so transferring something from Russia to Ukraine had no meaning. Let it go.

3. Russia must withdraw all of its military personnel and equipment from Ukraine—not just back to Russian territory, but back to their original home bases. (Some of the armored units came from many hundreds of miles away.) This must be done within a strict timetable. If Russia doesn’t comply, the ban on Ukraine’s membership in NATO will be lifted. (NATO leaders could assure Putin informally that, under these circumstances, Ukraine’s bid to join the alliance would be accepted immediately.)

4. A free and fair referendum, controlled and supervised by the United Nations, will be held in Ukraine’s Donbas region to see if its residents want Donetsk and Luhansk districts to be autonomous republics within Ukraine or a newly annexed part of Russia. Whichever side wins, the region will be a demilitarized zone between Russia and Ukraine, manned by U.N. peacekeepers if necessary.