Many more women and children will die if the United States doesn’t help Ukraine, Mr. President: Those are the stakes.

Vladimir Putin’s war machine has targeted innocents from the start in an effort to break his enemy’s will; he’s now doing his best to ensure that as many Ukrainian civilians as possible have no heat this winter for the same reason.

Kyiv is eager for an “energy cease-fire” that will protect its people, but that means Moscow stops hitting power plants — and Putin has shown absolutely no sign he’s ready to do that: Slaughtering women and kids is his best hope for success now that Russia is now actively losing on the frontline battlefield.

Yet there came the temporary throttling of Starshield, which threatened to greatly increase Ukrainian civilian deaths, since the tech is crucial to stopping Russian attacks behind the lines.

No one is very clear on what was behind that move, but it sure looks like some Pentagon or White House faction thought it could push President Volodymyr Zelensky to come to the table, as if he were the key barrier to peace.

Thing is, he can’t accept a bogus energy deal that leaves his civilians to freeze — no matter how hungry the West might be for Russian oil just now.

Again: Kyiv for three days honored the energy cease-fire that Trump announced, while Moscow launched over a hundred attacks on Ukrainian energy sites; if Zelensky didn’t resume his strikes, why would Putin yield another inch?

Zelensky has never been the stumbling block in ending this bloody war, except insofar as he refuses to surrender and let Putin erase the Ukrainian nation.

The Ukrainian prez is clear: Kyiv will again halt drone and missile strikes on Russian oil facilities and military supply lines only when Moscow stops raining missiles on Ukrainian energy infrastructure and helpless civilians.

The guy who needs to be pressured to the table is Putin, even if it’s harder for President Donald Trump to hit his pressure points.

Restoring Ukraine’s Starshield access was a good start; getting Kyiv more Patriot missile interceptors to protect its civilians would be a fine next step.

Send fresh offensive munitions, too, so Moscow needs to worry about how much more territory and troops it will lose if it doesn’t bend toward peace.

Keep up those Russia-crushing sanctions; obliterate Moscow’s shadow fleet, deter buyers of Kremlin energy.

Standing tough is the only way to get Putin to stop slaughtering civilians.