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Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I was glad to see President Zelenskyy clearly express his gratitude to President Trump and the American taxpayer for our support for the country of Ukraine over the last 3 years.

There has been much discussion in international communities and here at home on the war between Russia and Ukraine, which has now been going on for 3 long years. It has cost hundreds of thousands of lives on both sides, with millions of people displaced as a result of the war. Through it all, the Ukrainian people have demonstrated extraordinary courage and resilience.

But one thing is clear: It is time for the war in Ukraine to end. President Trump is right. But the more difficult question is, How?

Years ago, I recall GEN David Petraeus, the leader of our military and Central Command, heading up our efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, was asked the question: How does the war end?

He said: You tell me how the war ends. Wars are easy to start and hard to conclude.

This is the most difficult question of all--how does it end?

We should all be grateful to President Trump for taking on the difficult but essential task of brokering a peace agreement to end this devastating war. During the contentious meeting at the Oval Office last week, President Trump commented that he hoped to ``be known and recognized as a peacemaker.'' Well, this would be no small feat, but it is the right position to take.

It is not hard to look at this incredible devastation--the massive casualties, the human misery and suffering of the last 3 years--and understand that it is time for the bloodshed to end. But it will take both sides, Ukraine and Russia, to accomplish this goal. Ukraine cannot do it on its own.

President Trump was correct to point out to President Zelenskyy last week during this high-intensity meeting in the Oval Office--he said: I have to align myself with both of you in order to make a deal.

President Trump's skill at making deals is famous, but this would be the crowning achievement of his life if he is able to make this happen.

But the point is, in order to achieve a lasting peace, both sides of the conflict must be willing to sit down and negotiate and make concessions no matter how hard that is.

I am glad to see that President Zelenskyy has indicated a willingness for Ukraine to do so in part through a critical minerals arrangement with the U.S. Government. Such a deal would compensate the United States and its taxpayers for our many years of military and economic support for Ukraine. It would actually be a vested interest that the United States would have every reason to want to protect in the future. Some have called that an implicit security arrangement.

Perhaps most importantly, though, in order to ensure a lasting peace, there must be some real and tangible and enforceable security assurances for Ukraine. To put this in the proper context, we have to consider history, the events that led us up to this point.

In 1994, the United States, Russia, and Britain signed something called the Budapest Memorandum. This was shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union. As the Soviet Union broke up, it turned out that Ukraine, which was formerly part of the Soviet Union, had the third largest nuclear weapons stockpile in the world.

The Budapest Memorandum was an agreement between the United States, the United Kingdom, and Russia that if Ukraine would give up its nuclear weapons, its territorial integrity and independence would be preserved and respected.

This was a historic point in world history. It was an important step toward nuclear nonproliferation and prevented the rise of a major third nuclear power in Eastern Europe. But, unfortunately, Russia proceeded to violate that same agreement in 2014 with the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula, and then, as we know, the Russian Government, led by Mr. Putin, violated that agreement a second time in February of 2022 with its invasion of Ukraine.

If Russia was unwilling to honor the commitments it made in the Budapest Memorandum in 1994 by its invasion of Crimea in 2014 and its invasion of Ukraine as a nation in 2022, how can Ukraine be assured that Russia will honor a peace agreement brokered in 2025? That, perhaps, is the single most important question that we need to ask.

Given the history and pattern of behavior by Russia, if Zelenskyy does not receive adequate security assurances, will this incentivize him to do other things to protect and preserve his nation--for example, to reacquire a nuclear weapons program against an existential threat? We know that President Zelenskyy himself has floated this as a possibility, and more recently, the newly elected Chancellor of Germany had suggested that both Germany and the United Kingdom would share, perhaps, their nuclear weapons capabilities with Ukraine, which would be a dramatic and dangerous development.

But that is not all. We have to keep in mind that both President Zelenskyy and President Putin are not fighting this war in some sort of vacuum. Allies of the United States and adversaries alike around the world are watching.

Will our actions in Ukraine suggest to allies in South Korea, for example, that they should pursue their own nuclear weapon capability, especially in light of the North Korean nuclear program, which receives Russian assistance?

Will more citizens of Taiwan cast their vote for representatives pushing closer alignment with the People's Republic of China as the most prudent way for their people to maintain a guarantee against a catastrophic war in the Indo-Pacific?

Seeing that unanswered aggression is awarded, would President Xi be emboldened to seize Taiwan, as he has made clear he intends to do one way or the other?

These are just a few of the unintended consequences that could play out depending on how these peace negotiations transpire and how they develop.

We, the duly-elected representatives of the American people, must ask ourselves: Will a world of unreliable security assurances, of greater prospects of nuclear proliferation, of insufficient deterrence in the face of unprovoked aggression, result in a safer world for our children and grandchildren?

Well, given these difficult but necessary questions, I would once again applaud President Trump for taking the initiative of embracing peace through strength. His approach is the correct one, and he is right that an important piece of this is that our NATO allies--who, in fact, live in Europe, where Ukraine is located--need to increase their contribution to our collective security under the North Atlantic Treaty alliance. It is through strength we can guarantee peace both in Europe and around the world.

The suffering resulting from the Russian invasion of Ukraine on two occasions--2014 and 2022--has been devastating not only for Ukrainians but also for Russians as well, who have lost hundreds of thousands of casualties in the process.

President Trump pointed out during the meeting with President Zelenskyy that both sides are losing ``1,000, 2,000`` soldiers a week. ``As we sit here and talk, people are being shot and dying on the battlefield.''

What President Trump is doing to secure peace in this dangerous world is an act of moral leadership and I believe divinely inspired.

Jesus said in the Beatitudes:

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.

If President Trump is successful in securing a lasting peace, I, for one, think he will have earned the Nobel Peace Prize.

As President Zelenskyy himself said in the Oval Office--he said:

If President Trump [can] bring peace to our country, I think he will be on this wall.

He was, of course, referring to the walls of the Oval Office. They have pictures of historic American Presidents who have done great and important things.

It is my sincere hope that President Zelenskyy and President Putin will both accept the olive branch offered by President Trump by coming to the table and by making the necessary, enforceable concessions to ensure a lasting peace.
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