No modern conflict, so politically consequential or geographically proximate to our European allies, has been neglected in the way that the Russian offensive in Eastern Ukraine has been. The engagement presents a situation that tests our commitment to individual freedom and democracy abroad. Historically, we have justified our continued involvement in countless countries, like Iraq and Afghanistan, in this pursuit of freedom and democracy. Yet in Ukraine, the United States and our European partners have missed an opportunity to support the values that we claim to defend around the world.

Ukraine’s movement towards progress was catalyzed in the spring of 2012, when the country formed an Association Agreement with the European Union. Yet over the next two years, the Ukrainian President, Viktor Yanukovych, slowly pulled away from this popularly conceived agreement and began to warm to Russian influence. A country divided between ethnic identities—Ukrainian and Russian—came to feel this traditional split deepen as it was faced with a critical decision. Molded by pressure from the East, Yanukovych violently steered Ukraine away from a future envisioned by the majority and, in so doing, ignited the years of violent clashes that have come to define the rift between Eastern Europe and Russia. Now Russia actively pushes the Ukrainian border west, concealing their own forces among local rebels that they have cultivated and organized. Nearly sixty people are killed each week. This is no border skirmish. It is an invasion of sovereign soil by non-uniformed Russian forces.

However, the problem for our European allies is that any economic or political effort to thwart Russian expansionism in Ukraine is inconvenient. Well over one-third of the EU’s fossil fuel imports are transferred via pipeline from Russia, and European countries fear that any direct actions beyond condemnation, minimal mobilization and light economic sanctions may result in a shut off of this flow. This means two things: one, that our European allies must face the cost of diversifying their fuel sources, and two, in a more general sense, that they must look towards a more self-sufficient future by separating from Russian influence.

This past summer I met a Russian girl named Nastya. Living on the Black Sea in Krasnodar, she told me about unmarked, masked soldiers passing through the countryside, on their way to Crimea. T-14 tanks sat on flat beds covered in green netting, artillery units following behind. The unfettered flow of troops through sovereign soil and the amassing of tens of thousands more on the border is eerily reminiscent of 1930’s Europe. For three years, Russian forces have continued this steady campaign against the Ukrainian people, grossly violating basic human rights only 200 miles from the borders of our NATO allies.

Despite a popular revolution for transparent democracy and pleas for support while departing from a post-Soviet identity, Ukraine remains largely forgotten. This is not just about the dynamic between the U.S and Russia. This is not just about Ukraine. It is about the Ukrainian people.

The United States and our partners lead the world in action, and in this role, we must remain true to our fundamental principles. We are the ones who must protect. We are the ones who enable nations that seek to advance humanity. I truly believe that this is who we are at our core. The United States must draw a red-line in Ukraine, preventing Russia from smothering an evolving democracy with probing expansionism. Appeasement will not do. To the extent that we appease, we deepen the problem, sending signals of acceptance to Putin and those like him. It is no longer acceptable to ignore the suffering of the Ukrainian people. To do so puts at risk our commitment to the very principles that define our moral identity. And in this sense, we too will suffer.