President Donald Trump has sold out the Ukrainians, given the farm to Vladimir Putin, alienated U.S. allies—and may have revealed himself to be Moscow’s puppet.
At least, that’s how the mainstream media have portrayed the Russia-Ukraine peace deal that the White House presented last week, details of which have emerged in recent days.
“Did Putin write this?” asked a headline yesterday in POLITICO’s national security newsletter. A New York Times report gave the impression the White House was trying to elicit Kiev’s repudiation of the deal and “create a pretext for abandoning American support for Ukraine.” And if that wasn’t the intention, the Times told its readers, then the deal was meant to force Ukraine’s capitulation.
Russia’s vicious assault on Kiev early Thursday fed into the perception that Trump is forsaking the beleaguered Ukrainians. The attack was part of a country-wide missile and drone campaign through the night.
Yet a close analysis of the proposal, or what we know about it, suggests Trump is genuinely trying to cobble together a viable deal—and exposes as misleading the melodramatic insinuations of the mainstream media.
To be sure, Russia would get much from the agreement: de jure recognition of Crimea as Russian territory; de facto recognition of Russian control over the four Ukrainian oblasts Putin claimed in 2022 to annex; sanctions relief; and a U.S. pledge that Ukraine won’t join NATO.
These concessions would be difficult to stomach for Ukrainians and Westerners, including this columnist. In a just world, Putin would not be rewarded for launching an expansionist war of aggression.
But Ukraine would get more than many people realize, enough that Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky should take the deal—and soon. The one-page document laying out the proposal is reported to describe the deal as Trump’s “final offer.”
While Kiev would not be permitted to join NATO, the deal expressly permits it to join the European Union, which has a collective defense agreement. Moreover, the deal seems to allow for European peacekeepers on Ukrainian territory after the war, and for Western nations to rearm Ukraine. At the very least, it doesn’t rule any of this out. These would be meaningful security guarantees that collectively would deter future Russian aggression.
Hellbound and Down 