Tucked away on the fourth floor of the J. Erik Jonsson Library downtown is a small exhibit that highlights folk-art traditions of Ukraine. Behind the glass cases, mannequins wear elaborately embroidered blouses and pointy-toed moccasins. There are distinctive musical instruments and a carved wooden chess set. A large poster includes photos of brilliantly painted churches with ornate onion domes.

The exhibit is low-tech and apolitical, but viewed in the context of current events, poignant. The mannequins are inanimate ambassadors of a people battling for survival in a war they didn’t start. Russia launched its unprovoked, full-scale invasion of its neighbor, Ukraine, four years ago today, and Ukrainians have been fighting ever since.

For Russian President Vladimir Putin, it isn’t enough to seize territory. He needs to suppress Ukrainian identity and erase its cultural patrimony to reconstitute his version of a Russian empire.

That’s why thousands of Ukrainian children with living guardians were kidnapped early in the war and taken to Russia for “adoption.” That’s why Russia imposed its educational system on occupied territories, forcing teachers to abandon lessons in Ukrainian language and history and substituting Russian propaganda. Teachers who refused to return to their classrooms have been threatened, sometimes beaten and had their homes searched, according to human rights groups.

Regardless of that reality, the current U.S. administration often acts as if the Russia-Ukraine war is merely a contractual dispute. Instead of relying on diplomats or military officials with deep knowledge of the region to lead peace talks, President Donald Trump’s chief emissaries are his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and his friend, real estate investor Steve Witkoff.

Meanwhile, one of Russia’s top envoys is Vladimir Medinsky, a nationalist historian whose work has minimized Soviet aggression and justified forcibly unifying Ukraine with Russia. Small wonder that round after round of “peace talks” fails to produce progress.

A year into his second term as president, Trump should recognize that the art of the deal doesn’t work when your opponent wants to annihilate you and doesn’t care how much his own people suffer to advance that cause. The administration needs to drop the wishful thinking, denounce territorial concessions, and help Ukraine repel Russia.

We need to increase sanctions on countries that buy Russian energy products and consistently supply weapons and air defenses to Ukraine. We can support Ukraine’s efforts to rebuild and harden its utility infrastructure, which Russia has targeted relentlessly during the frigid winter.

The United States offered temporary protected status to many Ukrainians living in this country, which shields them from deportation until they can safely return home. That status, now scheduled to end in October, should be extended.

The Ukrainian folk art at the library must not become a relic of a culture extinguished by Putin’s dreams of empire.