President Joe Biden’s attempts to placate Moscow and dissuade it from another invasion of Ukraine will not have the intended effect.

The Kremlin does not accept the existence of an independent Ukrainian state that aspires to Western integration. The primary purpose of Russia’s military buildup along Ukraine’s borders is to convince Washington to push Kyiv into accepting Russian-directed autonomous regions on its territory that will block its Western progress. Washington, Brussels, and Berlin must appear to the Kremlin as the Three Kings bearing geostrategic gifts. The first gift has been the acceptance of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to help Moscow strangle Ukraine economically, deprive it of substantial energy transit fees, increase Europe’s dependence on Moscow’s energy supplies, and deepen the European Union’s susceptibility to geopolitical blackmail.