President Donald Trump should not meet Vladimir Putin until the Russian president also agrees to a joint meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Unfortunately, while White House officials first suggested that Trump would hold to that principle, Trump later said he was open to meeting Putin without Zelensky. It is concerning that this about-face followed Putin’s statement that any meeting with Zelensky required “certain conditions” that were still “a long way from” being created.

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It is also concerning that Trump has not followed through on his Friday deadline for Russia to support a ceasefire with Ukraine or face new U.S. sanctions. To be sure, Trump has taken some robust steps in relation to Russia since entering office, most notably in the field of nuclear deterrence. Unfortunately, however, the president has too often put far too much stock in Putin’s purely rhetorical pledges of interest in peace. Making vague promises to work with Trump on his peace agenda, Putin has repeatedly manipulated the president into avoiding the imposition of new sanctions. Putin knows that more U.S. sanctions, especially secondary sanctions on Russian export partners of the kind Trump has just imposed on India, would cause major disruption to the already weak Russian economy.

It is a good sign that the president’s patience seems to be running thin. He has spoken repeatedly in recent weeks about how he will hold a seemingly positive phone call with Putin only for Putin to then launch new missile and drone attacks on Ukraine’s civilian population. Those attacks reflect the utter barbarity of the Russian invasion that began in February 2022. Tens of thousands of Ukrainians have died in the conflict. Russia’s own cost has been even greater, with more than 100,000 soldiers killed in brutal meat grinder assaults that have captured just 20% of Ukrainian territory. Many hundreds of thousands have been badly wounded on both sides. In short, this is a war that needs to end as soon as possible.

Still, any sustainable peace will necessarily also need to be both practical and just. That means gradual sanctions relief for Russia and perhaps even tacit recognition that some Ukrainian territory under Russian control will remain so. But any just peace will also need to ensure the continued democratic sovereignty of Ukraine, defending the right of the Ukrainian people to elect their own governments free of external coercion, and that Ukrainian governments have the right to pursue foreign policy agendas of their choosing. Crucially, a just peace must also include provisions for a European peacekeeping monitoring force that can act as a tripwire against future Russian invasion in much the same way as the U.S. Army in Berlin acted as a tripwire against Soviet invasion during the Cold War.

Still, Trump’s robust effort to secure Putin’s seriousness toward peace is overdue. Reflecting Putin’s disdain for his efforts and the KGB-trained manipulator’s evident belief that he can continue playing the president for a fool, Trump should instead ensure that his meeting with Putin this week brings immediate results or immediate sanctions.

New U.S. sanctions could be imposed against the Russian central bank and third-country suppliers who act as intermediaries to supply Russia with manufacturing equipment and other high-tech goods under sanctions. At the same time, Trump should advance his tariffs on India over its purchases of Russian oil so that other Russian energy buyers, such as Turkey and, most notably, China, are also tariffed.

Considering the economic potential of access to the U.S. market versus the limited economic benefit of saving money by buying Russian energy, these nations will ultimately choose the U.S. market if Trump stands firm. And as the months advance, Russia’s already ailing economy will not be able to handle the ensuing collapse in foreign capital generation and government revenue.

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Standing firm is the key. Putin’s choices are allowing grave human suffering to continue unabated. Putin’s games have prevented the better potential of peace from coming to fruition until now. And Trump has the means to alter Putin’s calculus.

But he’ll only be able to do so if he is willing to prove to Putin that it is he who holds the initiative.