Trump Peace Plan for Ukraine will Consign Europe to Peril and Contempt
Acquiescence to a bad deal for Ukraine will expose Europe to future security peril and to near-irrelevancy in global foreign affairs. No US backstop can be trusted.
Rarely has there been so little substance to a peace plan. The sheer absurdity of the 28-point plan which the Americans claimed to be their own creation defied serious analysis. Marco Rubio’s subsequent meetings in Geneva restored a measure of balance but the despatch of Steve Witkoff to Russia will see it swing almost drunkenly nearer to its original conception, one that clearly had its origins in Moscow.
It was a sucker punch by Washington (or Mar-e-Lago) to President Zelensky, conscious that the Ukrainian President’s fortunes are at a low ebb. Not only has Pokrovsk nearly fallen to the persistent (and sanguinary) Russian advance but his own credibility has taken a substantial hit by the allegations of corruption amongst some of his advisors possibly including his Chief of Staff Andriy Yermak. Under pressure it seems that Zelensky was even prepared to discuss ceding some Donbas territory on a de facto basis so long as it is not de jure. This too makes no sense when one of the provisions of the 28-point plan banned Ukraine from ever trying to recover its lost territories.
Europe, of course, had to pretend to take the negotiations seriously. Not to have done so would have enraged Trump and risked retaliatory action which might have included the immediate withdrawal of the intelligence feed to Kyiv and even tariffs imposed on European countries. By appeasing the US President since January 2025 the Europeans have become his prisoners.
Europe has only itself to blame. The impending betrayal of Ukraine has been there for all to see. Europe has been guilty of wishful thinking. Ever since the start of his first term Trump’s admiration for Vladimir Putin has been evident. Leaders in London, Paris and Berlin should have re-read John Bolton’s book The Room where it Happened which laid bare Trump’s foreign relations proclivities (to an extent which has landed the Bush-era hawk in serious trouble).
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