Even if Donald J. Trump capitulates to Russia, which is a real danger, it doesn’t mean that Europe will follow suit. It is right to distance itself from an American president who spouts praise for Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, a war criminal whose forces and proxies have killed thousands of civilians in Ukraine and Syria alone.

We are encouraged by several recent statements from European politicians about the need to keep tough sanctions on Russia for its war against Ukraine.

One of the most recent came from Martin Schulz, the centrist Social Democratic Party of Germany candidate who will challenge incumbent Chancellor Angela Merkel if his party does well in the Bundestag federal elections on Sept. 24.

Schulz called Trump’s policies “un-American” and warned against lifting sanctions imposed against Russia over its role in the Ukraine crisis. “If Trump is now driving a wrecking ball through this set of values, then I will tell him as chancellor: That’s not the policy of Germany and Europe,” Schulz added.

Bravo! He looks perfectly acceptable, along with incumbent Angela Merkel, as German chancellor. They will keep German policy safe from Putin apologists like Gazprom lobbyist Gerhard “Gasbag” Schroeder and ex-Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

Another person we’ve got our eye on is Emmanuel Macron, a 39-year-old independent candidate for president in France. He looks like the best bet now to replace Francois Hollande in the April 23 election. It would be dangerous for the free world – and Ukraine especially – if Putin apologists Marine Le Pen or Francois Fillon got in office.

Trump makes some valid criticisms of NATO as obsolete and the European Union as bureaucratic and dysfunctional.

But NATO is necessary in this dangerous world. The answer is not to disband it but to make it more relevant, agile and better-resourced to respond to modern threats. Those include terrorism and Russian state terror. All NATO members should be spending at least 2 percent of their gross domestic product on defense.

The EU is dysfunctional, certainly, but as United Kingdom residents are learning the hard way as they contemplate a hard exit, the 28 nation political bloc is the continent’s best hope for upholding free trade and democratic values. Those values are not going to be upheld by many other nations, China and Russia chief among them.

We’re in a globalized world and there’s no going back. Nations should make trade and security agreements in their best interests – and in the best interests of their working-class citizens, which hasn’t happened. But Ukraine’s example is a stark reminder of how brutal life can be without being part of the EU or NATO.