Ben Wallace: Trump’s Ukraine peace talks have echoes of Nazi appeasement

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/02/13/trump-ukraine-peace-talks-echoes-nazi-appeasement-wallace/

by TheTelegraph

19 comments

  1. ***The Telegraph reports***:

    Donald Trump’s talks with Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine have echoes of Neville Chamberlain’s appeasement of the Nazis in 1938, Sir Ben Wallace has said.

    On Wednesday night, Mr Trump and Putin held a 90-minute phone call in which it was agreed that they would “immediately” begin peace negotiations.

    The call has prompted concerns that whatever negotiations the two devise will be favourable to Moscow, with Ukraine and Europe frozen out of talks.

    Sir Ben, a former defence secretary, said that if Mr Trump was seen to capitulate to the Kremlin as world leaders gathered for the Munich Security Conference this weekend, it would be a repeat of Chamberlain’s “peace for our time” moment.

    Writing for The Telegraph, he said: “Munich’s motto is ‘peace through dialogue’, but it has proven itself in recent years to also be a forceful bastion of European resistance against Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine.

    “What a shame, then, that this year’s gathering seems set to mirror the disastrous conference of 1938 where the continent stood blind in the face of Hitler’s duplicity. The stench of appeasement is once again returning to Munich.

    “After Chamberlain returned to Britain in 1938 having signed an agreement with Adolf Hitler, he proclaimed ‘peace for our time’. Winston Churchill then rebutted that ‘you were given the choice between war and dishonour. You chose dishonour and you will have war’. 

    “The same fate awaits the West, whether in the Taiwan strait, Iran, or elsewhere in Europe, if it fails to stand strong now. And like 87 years ago, it will have its roots in Munich.”

    It comes after Pete Hegseth, the US defence secretary, told Nato allies that they would have to stop relying on the US to provide security to the region.

    Sir Ben also expressed concern that if Putin was appeased now, there was no guarantee to stop him launching further invasions of Ukraine in the future.

    “The Trump administration, presuming itself to be the biggest donor (actually Europe is) feels it can dictate terms out of thin air, confident that nobody will stop it from fawning over Putin and his ‘security’ demands,” he wrote.

    “With the question of Nato accession now firmly off the table, there is no guarantee that Putin will not return to wrest yet more territory from Ukraine.”

    He warned that Putin was “not one for keeping his promises” and that a ceasefire was an opportunity for Moscow to “reload”.

    **Full story:** [**https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/02/13/trump-ukraine-peace-talks-echoes-nazi-appeasement-wallace/**](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/02/13/trump-ukraine-peace-talks-echoes-nazi-appeasement-wallace/)

  2. Odd, I wonder how this author would compare the “religion of peace” talks with the government about the grooming gangs? Or about the terrorism? Or how about the treatment of the hostages in Gaza?

    I mean, comparing the two talks because they both use the word peace and they both discuss ending war and saving lives is pretty much what every non-capitulating peace conference does.

    Oh, wait, I see the problem, nothing was hot micced so we don’t know if Trump made promises to the Kremlin now that he is in his second term, so we can’t know if he agreed to allow Russia to freely invade Ukraine like we had with Obama in his second term where they invaded and took over Crimea.

    I see, it is just an attempt at a political hit piece to appease ultra-liberals who don’t understand facts and only care about the players involved.

  4. Trump is trying to force an end to the war because Russia is on the verge of economic collapse and he wants to save his friend Putin.

  5. The war already started, Russia lost most of its equipements, and sanctions are real. Europeans are not naive and declared today that there will not be cheap peace decision without EU and Ukraine.
    It’s more that a cucky appeasement, it looks like Orange Turd is trying to find reasons, responses, that could excuse him for collaborating with Pootin. It’s sad.

  6. More on this subject from other reputable sources:

    —
    – CNN.com (C+): [Ukraine ‘may be Russian someday,’ Trump says ahead of Vance-Zelensky meeting](https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/11/europe/ukraine-russia-trump-zelensky-intl/)
    – France 24 (A-): [Ukraine prepared to swap territory with Russia in peace negotiations, Zelensky says](https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20250211-ukraine-prepared-to-swap-territory-with-russia-in-peace-negotiations-zelensky-says)
    – BBC Online (A-): [No talks about Ukraine without Ukraine, UK defence secretary says](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c4g97971rwnt)
    – Channel 4 (B+): [Trump shocks Europe with ‘avalanche of concessions’ to Putin over Ukraine](https://www.channel4.com/news/trump-shocks-europe-with-avalanche-of-concessions-to-putin-over-ukraine)

    —
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  7. Not quite. Chamberlain absolutely took the piss when it came to his appeasement of Hitler. He let Adolf:

    * Remilitarize the Rhineland
    * Build Germany’s armed forces far beyond what the Treaty of Versailles would permit
    * Annex Austria
    * Invade German-speaking parts of Czechoslovakia
    * Annex the rest of Czechoslovakia

    It wasn’t until the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact that Chamberlain finally put his foot down.

    That being said, I don’t think Putin will stop with the gains he made in Ukraine. While I seriously doubt that he’ll attack a NATO country, an invasion of Moldova could be on the cards (at least to bring Transnistria into Russia control.)

  8. I suggest not looking into any other of Trump’s actions if you are trying to avoid similarities to nazis.

  9. You keep using that word.

    I don’t think it means what you think it means.

  10. I asked ChatGBT yesterday what is the best form of gouvernment for companies to max out profit and the answer was “oligarchic capitalism”. It’s that simple.

    What we are witnissing now is an hostile takeover over the world order.

  12. Trump supporters were here just days ago saying how everyone was unfair to Trump…

  13. Trump suffers from the Dunning Kruger effect. Unfortunately, it is nearly impossible for him to learn this.

  14. >“The Trump administration, presuming itself to be the biggest donor (actually Europe is) feels it can dictate terms out of thin air, confident that nobody will stop it from fawning over Putin and his ‘security’ demands,”

    Trump isn’t dictating terms for Ukraine or Europe. He’s stating US policy towards Russia and the Ukrainian conflict. Perhaps if UK feels this way, maybe it should assume leadership for the western response to the invasion instead of criticizing the US for passing on the chance?

  15. I honestly think all this anger flying around is completely misplaced and useless. Stop paying attention to Trump. Sure, he’s an egomaniac and lunatic, like how is that news.

    But what’s Europe doing to counter this process? Did Europe give a counteroffer to Trump or to Zelensky? Where’s someone to tell Zelensky “Look, we want some of those minerals too, in exchange we will ramp up arms deliveries, Rheinmetall will run 24/7 on 200% AND we will send our soldiers.” Yet nothing happens because there’s literally NO LEADER to take up the responsibility, no one Trump would even remotely respect. Where’s fucking Macron (seriously, where is he?) or Scholz who constantly compete like silly little roosters on who will lead Europe? Where’s the UK? Fuck France and Germany who have been the most useless in this. The little Baltics and Nordics do have the courage and willingness but not enough respect on the diplomatic battlefield so they can’t do this on their own. Poland I don’t know, I was hoping they would have access to Trump but Tusk already said he’s not sending any soldiers so that’s not helpful either.

  16. Dont panic yet. Trump has signalled that Ukraine has the option of becoming a vassal. They’d trade resource rights for security. Trump would have to secure it in order to maintain said resource extraction.

    So even if Ukraine doesn’t get NATO, they may get US military bases.

  18. All nice and well, but the UK and allies never provided Ukraine at any point in time with enough weapons to realistically take back the territory. That failed in 2023, and since then Russian defensive fortifications have likely only increased in scope.

    At this point, momentum is clearly on Russian side and the West clearly has no interest in providing Ukraine with enough weapons to give Ukraine a decisive military advantage, even without Trump.

    Yes, Trump is forcing Ukraine to give up territory, but the rest of the West has also never engaged in a policy where taking back territory was remotely within the realm of possibility.

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