The crisis between Russia and the United States has revived Cold War levels of suspicion, antagonism and gamesmanship. It has also led to the first major American military aid to Ukraine since Russia invaded in March 2014 and triggered the mobilization of NATO forces around the continent.

As the world’s two largest nuclear powers, Russia and the United States have a unique responsibility to discourage the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and to work together on global challenges such as terrorism, climate change and governing the Arctic. Yet, the current state of U.S.-Russia relations is adversarial, with large majorities of Americans in both parties believing that the United States is considered an enemy by Russia, and with many younger Americans and liberal Democrats holding this view.

While experts agree that the U.S. military’s globe-spanning force would clobber Russia in any toe-to-toe conventional fight, modern wars are rarely such and geography, politics and terrain often give one side an advantage. Moreover, the United States spends nearly 10 times as much on national defense as does Russia and has a vastly superior ability to project power.

As President Obama and Vice President Biden have made clear, sustaining this clear message of condemnation of Russia’s savage assault on Ukraine and support for its victims is not only morally the right thing to do, but it’s in our vital national interests as well. It’s an essential first step in building more support among nations around the world that have been reluctant to fully stand up to Putin’s aggression.