OPINION: It’s Time for Trump to ‘Super Size’ Ukraine

It is Inauguration Day in Washington today and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine is approaching its third anniversary this coming Feb. 24.

Contrary to campaign rhetoric, this war is not going to come to an end within 24 hours of Donald Trump’s swearing in as the 47th president of the United States. Putin made that abundantly clear on Saturday when a Russian ballistic missile destroyed Kyiv’s oldest McDonald’s.

The symbolism, intended or not, is unmistakable. The fast-food chain is a favorite of Trump’s – and arguably his working a McDonald’s drive-thru lane helped cement his November electoral victory. It was a stark reminder to Trump that as he takes the oath of office today in the Capitol Building’s Rotunda that he is inheriting a nation at war.

Putin, intentionally or not, threw the gauntlet down and now it falls to Trump to pick it up and to devise a plan to decisively win this war.

 Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) described the conflict during his Senate confirmation hearing for Secretary of State as a “war of attrition, a stalemate, a protracted conflict,” and concluded that the official position of the US should be to “bring the war to an end.”

Getting there will not be easy. Trump’s strategy must include all the instruments of national power – diplomacy, information, military, and economic (DIME). The Trump plan being developed by retired Army Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg is forecasted to take upwards to 100 days to complete. Defining an end state is key.

Other Topics of Interest

What Trump’s Inauguration Will Mean for the Ukraine and Russia War

How I see the setting and what’s likely

As Rubio correctly asserted, “the Biden Administration never clearly delineated what the end goal of the conflict was.” Congress did not know what they were funding — and on many occasions it “sounded like however much it takes for however long it takes.” Or the very ‘forever war “Biden said he would not get America into.

While Biden’s “weaken Russia” strategy enabled Ukraine to initially repel the Russian invasion, the “just enough” strategy prevented Ukraine from winning the war. The Biden Administration never fully transitioned with Ukraine into the offensive.

Biden’s White House was stuck in a defense mode, and it showed. Ukraine was supplied with defensive weapons – and seemingly Biden’s national security team comprised of Jake Sullivan, Antony Blinken and retired Gen. Lloyd Austin were assuming at some point that Putin would see the futility of the situation and withdraw or sue for peace.

That did not happen.

Instead, Putin chose to double down on Russia’s military failures. Conquering Ukraine has become personal to the Russian dictator. 817,160 Russian casualties later, and a weakened Russia has now entered into formal security agreements with their “arsenals of evil” – Iran and North Korea – for drones, ballistic missiles, artillery rounds and infantry.

Peace by means of the utter destruction of Ukraine is the Russian end state. But it will not likely stop there, and President Trump needs to understand that.

Nikolai Patrushev, a former intelligence officer and secretary of the Russian Security Council who is now an advisor to Putin, validated Moscow’s preferred end state when he said, “It can’t be ruled out that Ukraine will cease to exist at all in the coming year.” He then added, “I won’t rule out that Chișinău’s aggressive anti-Russian policy will result in Moldova either becoming part of another state or ceasing to exist entirely.”

Nor must Trump forget that in May 2023, former Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said the Baltics belong to Russia, and referred to Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia as “our” provinces, saying they had “soiled themselves” over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He also referred to Poland as “temporarily occupied.”

In McDonald’s menu terms, Putin is saying ‘Super Size Me’ in eastern Europe. He wants a Big Mac, fries and a shake – and he is demanding Ukraine pay for it.

In reality, what Putin is attempting to order is a peace plan that simply would set the conditions for the next phase of the Kremlin’s campaign against Ukraine. The complete genocidal eradication of the Ukrainian people and culture that he began in Bucha in the Spring of 2022.

Putin’s so-called peace plan calls for Kyiv’s complete capitulation, leaving Ukraine internationally isolated and unable to defend itself. Even Rubio acknowledged that, stating “Putin’s goal is to have maximum leverage to basically impose neutrality on Ukraine, refit, and then come back and do it again in four to five years.”

Ending this war is going to take more than just bold diplomacy, a ceasefire, balance or both sides being “realistic” as Rubio suggested. Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky are firmly entrenched in their positions.

Putin seeks to retain the illegally annexed territories and Crimea, and for Ukraine to “officially give up its pursuit of NATO membership and agree not to enter into any military alliances with Western powers.” Ukraine would also have to “accept extensive limitations on the size of its armed forces and on the kinds of weapons systems it is allowed to possess.”

Zelensky’s baseline is restoring Ukraine’s internationally recognized borders as mandated by the border treaty of 2004 between Ukraine and Russia. He also needs ironclad security guarantees in the form of troops from Europe being stationed in Ukraine – and admission into the European Union and NATO.

Rubio is correct when he says “There’s no way Russia takes all of Ukraine. The Ukrainians are too brave and fight too hard.” But he is wrong to believe that “A nation the size of Ukraine … is not going to push these people [Russian Army] all the way back to where they were on the eve of the invasion.”

But Ukraine is capable of doing just that if equipped with the right weapons and munitions – and freed from the Biden era of self-defeating restrictions.

Hard diplomacy and tough work are not going to get Putin to the negotiation table. It is going to take a punch to the face. As Michael Waltz said last Sunday, Trump is “ready to lift restrictions on the supply of long-range weapons to Ukraine to force Putin to sit down at the negotiating table.” That is a good start and an encouraging one coming from Trump’s incoming National Security advisor. 

It will take interdiction to bring Putin to the negotiation table – and that requires the use of long-range weapons Waltz described and the authorization to use them against targets in Russia. Ukraine is inflicting upwards to 1,500 Russian casualties a day – but Russia is able to reconstitute its forces every day. To win, Ukraine needs to stem the flow of Russian and North Korean forces into Ukraine.

Contrary to Rubio’s battlefield assessment, Russia’s army in Ukraine is vulnerable – and it can be defeated. Linear thinking will not win the war. This does not have to be mano a mano. The Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) do not have to fight according to antiquated Russian World War I-like tactics.

The Kremlin’s strength comes from mass, in the form of artillery and infantry. But they also have an inherent weakness: a dependency upon sustainment via exterior supply lines. World War I tactics – relentless full frontal human wave assaults described simply as ‘meat assaults’ without regard to casualties are wearing down the Ukrainian defenders in the close fight.

But Russian supply lines must sustain these tactics with ‘more’ to maintain momentum. Without sustainment the assaults grind to a halt. If the AFU severs that connective tissue, then the Russian forces in Ukraine will wither on the vine.

Ukraine needs to isolate Russian forces in Ukraine and Crimea then close with and destroy them. Interdiction is the means to the end. The AFU can do that by cutting off supply lines – ammunition, weapons, troops, fuel, food, water, etc.

But that requires striking targets inside of Russia in their pre-battle assembly areas before they can be introduced to the battlefield. Trump must enable Ukraine to strike Putin’s forces at the airfields, railheads, seaports, highways, etc. Violence of action – afford no sanctuary; something the Biden Administration was reluctant to do.

Equally paramount is Trump must ensure that the US no longer submits to Russia’s third condition for use of nuclear weapons as described by General Valery Gerasimov to then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley: “Russia reserves the right to use tactical nuclear weapons in the event of catastrophic battlefield loss.” Under the Biden Administration, Washington did just that, forcing Ukraine to let 30,000 Russian troops escape Kherson in August 2022.

The US forgot how to win under Biden. Instead, his White House was always searching for the ever-elusive “deal.”

The Trump Administration needs to summon the fighting spirit of Generals Grant and Patton and enable Ukraine to defeat Russia in Ukraine.  It is time we “Super Size” the AFU McDonald’s style. Maximum pressure will work – and if fully empowered by Trump, Ukraine already knows how to wield it.

 Copyright 2025. Jonathan E. Sweet and Mark C. Toth. All rights reserved.

The views expressed in this opinion article are those of the authors and not necessarily those of Kyiv Post.