Vladimir Putin came to Alaska and got the red-carpet treatment, complete with a fighter-jet flyover and a warm presidential handshake.
While expectations were low for a full ceasefire, most observers were hoping for at least a path to negotiations.
But as he has for months now, Putin simply continued to play rope-a-dope like a boxer in the ring, ducking both a ceasefire or even a demonstrated willingness to negotiate.
A subdued President Donald Trump canceled a planned luncheon to discuss broader economic and security issues with Russia, uncharacteristically refused to take questions and flew back to DC to ponder next steps.
Clearly, it’s going to take “severe measures,” to use Trump’s own words, to get Moscow not to just sit at the bargaining table but stay for dinner. But what measures need to be up for discussion to convince the maximalist Putin to reduce his demands? Is there a specific checklist?
Ordered in ascending amount of pain for Moscow, here are 10 options the White House, acting in concert with European allies, should strongly consider:
1. Increase the number of F-16 aircrafts to Ukraine to at least 100.
This would be triple the number of Ukrainians undergoing fighter training and provide commensurate air-to-air, air-to-ground and electronic warfare capabilities. This should be done by a joint U.S.-European Union task force under the direction of the supreme allied commander of NATO.
2. Quadruple the number of long-range, surface-to-surface weapons provided to Ukraine.
The U.S. High Mobility Artillery Rocket System is the gold standard, but European defense forces also have powerful capabilities in this area. Assign this to the EU as lead, with purchases of both U.S. and European weapons in the mix.
3. Provide highly precise targeting intelligence for these missiles to Ukraine, with a detailed focus on Russian logistics systems.
The U.S. has spent decades studying how to reverse-engineer military logistic chains to find the critical nodes and destroy them, rendering the supply chain useless.
Assign this targeting effort to a combined task force of U.S. Transportation Command and U.S. Strategic Command, both run by two combat commanders with deep experience.
4. Begin sharing technology and hardware of unmanned vehicles between the EU, U.S. and Ukraine.
Put particular emphasis on maritime unmanned systems (air, surface and subsurface). Target the remaining ships of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. Use the U.S. Navy’s expert Task Force 59, based in the Arabian Gulf, which has experimented with maritime unmanned warfare extensively.
5. Confiscate the $300 billion in Russian assets in Western banks, including the $10 billion in U.S. institutions.
