WASHINGTON – The circles of power in Kiev have little to be thankful for this week: Delivery time From that Thanksgiving day imposed President Donald Trump The Ukrainian government to accept the terms of A Possible peace agreement with Russia It fell like a bomb on the other side of the Atlantic.
ukrainian president, Volodymyr ZelenskyHe declared that his country was obliged to do so Choosing between “loss of dignity and risk of losing a key partner”That is, opposition to the White House if it resists the agreement. Under pressure from Trump, several European leaders gathered this weekend in South Africa for the G20 summit, and again came out to rally support for Ukraine.
he A 28-point plan presented by the Trump team It appears that he was consulted with his Russian interlocutors Crossing many “red lines” in Ukraine. According to that plan, Kyiv would have had -Abandoning the lands that Russia failed to occupy militarily During the nearly four-year invasion, which began in February 2022. The plan also forces Kiev to Reduce the size of your armyl It is unlikely to receive NATO forces on its territory And to enshrine this in its constitution You will never join the military alliance NATOAll this without a real security guarantee from the West.
American officials, led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, are in Geneva to meet with Zelensky and their European counterparts in an attempt to bring positions closer together. On Sunday, both parties noted progress in this regard, although without going into details about the revisions made to the document.
Early in the morning, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der LeyenHe said in a statement Europe did not want the Ukrainian armed forces to suffer from restrictions That they would leave it “vulnerable to future attacks” and that it longed for an agreement that “stops the killing” and at the same time “does not sow the seeds of future conflict.” Von der Leyen stressed the European Union’s commitment to the process of Ukraine’s integration into the European regional bloc.
In the midst of this unrest between the Ukrainians and Europeans in general, Trump told the press: The agreement was not necessarily the “final offer.”. However, he was direct in saying that it was necessary for Zelensky to take the proposal seriously. “He better like it, because if he doesn’t like it, I think they’ll have to keep fighting.”Trump announced on Friday. The next day, again in front of the press, Trump said that Zelensky could accept the agreement or “continue fighting with all his might.”
Trump’s speech reveals that he is leaving Loss of patience. The White House has already withdrawn its aid to Ukraine, and Europe is providing most of the aid today. Trump’s desire to conclude a peace deal has clashed for months with Ukraine’s resistance to ceding part of its territory to the Russian invader and the dubious interest of Russian President Vladimir Putin himself in sitting down seriously to negotiate.
But the feeling of European governments in light of the statements of recent days is that Trump is like that again Being functional for Russia.
“I feel nauseous,” he said. Atlantic A European diplomat based in Kiev after attending a briefing with US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, who formally delivered the 28-point plan to Zelensky in the Ukrainian capital last week. He added: “It is as if the world is collapsing around us and we are watching it in real time.”
Internal observers of the US foreign policy establishment share the same view. “It is unthinkable for Ukraine as well Undermining US national securityBridget Brink, a former North American ambassador to Kiev, said, comparing the potential concessions to the policy of European appeasement towards the Nazi regime before World War II.Appeasing tyrants never achieves lasting peace“It didn’t work in 1938 and it won’t work now.”
Republican Senator Roger Wicker posted on the social network
But at this moment there are other important considerations. On the battlefield, Ukraine is having great difficulty stopping Russia, and the strategic logistics and railway node in Pokrovsk, in the Donetsk region, is on the verge of collapse. In Russian hands after months of fierce fighting. An even more damaging corruption scandal has erupted in Kiev, undermining confidence in Zelensky’s government and focusing public anger in his closest circle, including his key adviser, Andriy Yermak, who just this weekend took part in talks in Geneva.
Trump’s plan can also be interpreted as a kind of… Escape route for both sides In conflict: It offers Putin a way out of the geopolitical impasse in which it is located, Zelensky was given the opportunity to let the Ukrainian people decide the path forward by promising to hold elections within 100 days. After signing the agreement, all Russian and Ukrainian officials were pardoned for their behavior during the war (including Zelensky’s allies).
“What prompted this peace proposal was the feeling that recent battlefield setbacks in the Donetsk region and the corruption scandal in Kiev have pushed Ukraine to a tipping point,” the writer wrote. The Washington PostDavid Ignatius. “Russia, for its part, is under severe economic pressure and may prefer to end the war rather than continue fighting for the two years it would take to fully occupy Donetsk.”
Although most European leaders expressed their desire to reformulate Trump’s plan, one prominent leader unequivocally praised it. “Europeans must immediately and unconditionally support the US peace initiative,” the Hungarian Prime Minister wrote in a statement. Viktor Orban, who has criticized military aid to Kiev for months and called for rapprochement between Europe and the Kremlin. The Hungarian president added: “In addition to supporting the American president, we must begin independent and direct negotiations with Russia without delay.”
Orban is not the only European who wants a quick fix, regardless of what it might cost Ukraine in terms of sovereignty or what it means for its future. In the European Parliament there is an increasingly large pro-Russian blocmade up of lawmakers from far-right parties that thrive in Europe.
Other analysts confirm this Kiev is running out of time to get a better deal. “Given the mounting evidence of Ukraine’s military vulnerabilities and Russia’s ability to press ahead with its attacks, prudence dictates that peace should be sought on reasonable terms and as quickly as possible,” says Anatole Levin of the Quincy Institute, a Washington think tank that promotes moderation in foreign policy.
According to Levin, in the coming years, the agreement proposed by Trump may not be such a bitter pill: “For Ukraine, an agreement that guarantees the independence of three-quarters of its territory with a clear path to its entry into the European Union will be a kind of victory.”
Translated by Jaime Arrambide