Trump’s Plan to Sell Out Ukraine to Russia
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Donald Trump said on the campaign trail that he would make peace between Ukraine and Russia in a day. Three months later, he’s behind schedule, and his plan now is to end the fighting quickly by selling out Ukraine and its people to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The proposal that Trump, Vice President J. D. Vance, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are pushing is not a framework for peace, but a rich and bloody reward to Moscow for three years of aggression and war crimes.
The Russians might do some performative caviling, but the Americans are offering Putin a dream of a deal . If Trump has his way, Washington will lift sanctions against Russia; both sides will accept a cease-fire in place (leaving Russian troops on newly conquered Ukrainian territory), and the United States will agree to recognize Crimea as part of Russia (leaving the Kremlin with full ownership of previously conquered territory).
For this, Ukraine gets basically nothing, except a vaporous security guarantee from an American president who has made clear his hostility to Ukraine and its leaders, an animus that became especially clear when Trump and Vance ambushed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during a White House meeting last month. The Trump “peace” plan is no such thing; it is an instrument of surrender, and the Ukrainians are unlikely to accept it.
Trump’s proposal would functionally destroy Ukraine, which would limp away from the deal as a vulnerable rump state, shorn of some 20 percent of its territory and millions of its citizens. It would cede control over its foreign policy by promising never to join NATO—an ironic Russian demand, given how starkly Putin’s invasion has reminded the world why alliances such as NATO must continue to exist. But NATO membership is a distant issue compared with the immediate problem: If Kyiv agrees to Trump’s proposal, whatever is left of the Ukrainian state will soon be an easy target for the Kremlin. Once the Russian economy recovers and Russia’s forces catch their breath, Putin will finish the job of conquering Ukraine with even greater vengeance and violence. Time and space are on Moscow’s side, and Trump intends to give Putin plenty of both.
[ Jonathan Chait: The simple explanation for why Trump turned against Ukraine ]
The Americans have threatened to walk away from the process if either side refuses Trump’s deal, but no one can believe that this is even a token attempt to pressure Moscow. The White House is aiming its rhetorical fire squarely at Zelensky. Earlier today, Trump ranted at Zelensky on his Truth Social media platform, telling the Ukrainian president that he “can have Peace or, he can fight for another three years before losing the whole Country. We are very close to a Deal, but the man with ‘no cards to play’ should now, finally, GET IT DONE.” Zelensky, for his part, continues to insist on an “immediate, full, and unconditional cease-fire” before he agrees to further negotiations, a position Trump will likely use as a pretext for abandoning further talks.
Vance, meanwhile, has adopted a classic position of moral equivalence, as if the people shooting at each other—and their reasons for fighting—are indistinguishable. “The only way to really stop the killing,” he said in India today, “is for the armies to both put down their weapons, to freeze this thing, and to get on with the business of actually building a better Russia and a better Ukraine.”
(The vice president might just be toeing Trump’s line, but if his previous statements on international affairs are a guide, he really does seem to have a dismally simplistic understanding of geopolitics. He showcased this strategic shallowness during his embarrassing speech in Munich in February, when he scolded America’s allies about their domestic politics, as if the Europeans were merely a collection of unimportant U.S. congressional delegations.)
We need not invoke World War II comparisons to recognize the moral and political vacuity of the Trump-Vance position. Instead, imagine intervening in other wars of aggression, such as the Korean War in 1950, and telling the embattled southern forces after Pyongyang’s massive invasion that both sides “need to put down their weapons and build a better North and South Korea.” Or perhaps after Iraq attempted to erase Kuwait from the map in 1990, America and the United Nations should have told the states of the Persian Gulf that sometimes countries just disappear, and that both Saddam Hussein’s army and what was left of Kuwait’s forces needed to put their guns down.
Trump is not a fair broker: He is acting as a de facto Russian ally and making demands as Moscow’s proxy. Perhaps Europe and other nations will be able to fill the void left by American cowardice, but no one should blame the Ukrainians if they refuse to bow to Washington’s demand that they accept a grim destiny as Moscow’s newest serfs.
If Ukraine falls to Russia, now or 3 or 5 years from now, Trump will go down as the most disgraceful foreign policy figure in American history. I dont think he can even comprehend that, let alone care.
This is unhinged.
Borrowing hundreds of billions to give to Ukraine, a country who Obama and the Democrats who were perfectly fine proclaiming was not a core interest of the US when Russia first invaded, is what's going to go down in history as a massive mistake. As we've seen, our debt already controls our policy as the bond markets now call the shots. To add even more debt for no purpose other than to prolong a stalemate is asinine.
This all goes back to 2016. Prior to that election, Democrats didn't care about Russia invading Ukraine. They were happy watching Obama attack Romney for calling Russia a threat and then send messages to Russia about how much freedom he'd have to do their bidding once he won reelection. They cheered when Obama refused to give Ukraine any military aid whatsoever. But once Democrats came to believe $50,000 in facebook ads before and after the 2016 election that were generally anti-Clinton somehow caused her to lose, they've lost their minds when it comes to Putin. Instead of their friend, he became the first foreigner who wasn't Jewish who Democrats disliked more than Americans. Suddenly, it was progressive jihad against their friend who they think betrayed them.
so now they are more than happy to see America borrow money it doesn't have and can't afford to give away from our descendants to keep a stalemate going in Ukraine so they can't stick it to the guy who jilted them.
Your comment is unhinged.
Let Ukraine fall and Trump will go down as one of the most nefarious figures in US foreign policy history, if not the most nefarious. There is zero doubt about this. Never before has the US stood on the side of the naked aggressor.
Well said. As much as it sucks it seems to be time to throw in the hand. Ukraine has no hand and Zelensky and many on the left refuse to admit this. He had no hand before Trump was elected and no one seems to be willing to give him better cards now. They didn't in the past three years and other than a little saber rattling they are not doing anything of substance.
I have said this from the start of the war. Either give him enough to win or stop the slow bleed of his country costing thousands of lives and billions of dollars. European countries and many on the left seem ok to continue wiith the slow bleed.
Your comment is ignorant and uninformed. You and progressives have no plan or clue as to how to make peace possible and have been reduced to blaming the whole mess on Trump
The left seems to have no problem in supporting and appeasing a large Asian nation
There is only so much that Trump can do or say. At least he has tried to aid in ending the conflict since old tired Biden did nothing but make the situation worse. Many idiots on the left foolishly believe that by some miracle that Ukraine will prevail intact if only the US keeps priming the money pump
The US isn't going to go to war with Russia over a European territorial dispute that should be settled by European nations. If Zelensky refuses to accept the reality of his defeat, then the US and Trump need to walk away.
Trump will be to blame?
I doubt historians will blame Trump. I do think historians may give credit to Hillary Clinton for finally getting democrats to denounce a Russian leader.
We should be much more concerned that Ukraine will sell out the United States. Returning all the territory occupied by Russia could mean the next Ukrainian election returns a pro-Russian government to power.
Ukraine had an elected pro-Russian governments until their parliamentary coup removed the elected government and disenfranchised large numbers of Ukrainian voters. A unified Ukraine could elect another pro-Russian government. Are we really going to risk Ukraine becoming another Afghanistan a decade from now?