The Russo–Ukrainian war continues: How to end it justly

By Richard D. Land, Christian Post Executive Editor Friday, January 02, 2026

I wrote a column, “A peace plan for Ukraine — a roadmap to genuine peace in the region,“ last May, detailing a proposal for a plan to end the Russo-Ukrainian war.

Unfortunately, this bloody war continues with tragically high casualties on both sides. Russia, a nation of 146 million people, invaded Ukraine, a nation of 38 million citizens. Having begun seeking to occupy various parts of Ukraine (Crimea and the eastern provinces) in 2014, they launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. 

The Ukrainians, though badly outnumbered and with what appeared to be a seriously outgunned armed forces, stunted the Russian invasion and have fought heroically and bravely. To date, the Russo-Ukrainian war has already become the bloodiest war on the European continent since the end of World War II.

Reliable figures are difficult to obtain. But independent students of the war estimate that Russia has lost at least 350,000 dead and a million wounded. Russia’s population is approximately the same as the U.S. population during WWII, and we lost 407,316 dead and 671,278 wounded in that war, and many of us have parents and grandparents who remember the impact those casualties had on our population.

Ukraine, with a much smaller population, fighting mainly a defensive war, has at least 57,000 killed and 250,000 wounded military casualties, and tens of thousands of civilians as well.  Approximately half the pre-war population of Russian-occupied territory has fled and become refugees (3 to 3.5 million Ukrainians).

In addition, the U.N. Human Rights Office has reported that the Russians are committing severe human rights abuses, including torture, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, enforced Russification, indoctrination and kidnapping of children, and suppression of the Ukrainian language and culture. 

If there is any semblance of a “just” ending of this war, there will be extensive prosecution of Russians for war crimes against the Ukrainian civilian and military population. In May, it was fairly easy to predict that the Russo-Ukrainian war would continue as a bloody stalemate for the foreseeable future. That is why I suggested a roadmap to peace that included an internationally monitored and enforced ceasefire that would be followed by internationally monitored elections in the disputed territories. 

One of the most sacrosanct ideals of the late-20th and early 21st centuries is the idea of a people’s “self-determination” — the belief that people in a particular region have the right to determine for themselves by majority vote how they will be governed and by whom. A close corollary to the belief in self-determination is the international principle that a region’s sovereignty cannot be changed by military conquest (i.e., Crimea's annexation by Russia after being taken by military force is not to be recognized internationally).

Consequently, I suggested last May that an internationally enforced and monitored ceasefire be put in place and then the international community (either the U.N. or the European Community or some combination thereof) should monitor a free and fair election in each of these regions and let the population decide for themselves by secret ballot whether they will be governed by Ukraine, Russia or become independent. 

This type of peace plan is doable if the Europeans and the U.S. have the backbone to tell the Russians to accept this plan, or they will continue to assist Ukraine and make a physical conquest by Russia impossible. My guess is that, given the choice, most Ukrainians and ethnic Russians living in these contested areas will choose democracy over Russian oppression, and democracy will be the winner.

Let us pray that the leaders of the Western nations will not abandon Ukraine but will stand up for freedom and democratic government. The Russian Bear will not stop on its own. He must be confronted and stopped for the good of mankind.