At Axios Barak Ravid, Colin Demarest, and Dave Lawler report on the reaction of Ukrainian President Zelensky to the Trump Administration’s latest proposed peace plan:
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll on Thursday that he’s willing to work with the Trump administration on its new plan for peace in Ukraine, U.S. and Ukrainian officials tell Axios.
Why it matters: The plan calls on Ukraine to make enormous concessions, including handing over territory to Russia that Ukraine currently controls. But rather than reject it outright, Zelensky agreed to negotiate — and his office said he expects to discuss it with President Trump in the coming days.
but
- The plan includes elements that are seen as highly Moscow-friendly, such as limitations on the size and capabilities of the Ukrainian military after the war, according to a Ukrainian official.
- Ukraine has repeatedly rejected such proposals in the past.
I’m not particularly sanguine about this latest plans chances for just those reasons.
I’m still waiting for someone to propose a plan that allows Ukraine to prevail under the terms that President Zelensky has argued for. I’ve been waiting for two years.
As I see it there are several possible ways of looking at the conflict:
- As long as it weakens the Russians, who cares how long the conflict drags on? The longer the better.
- Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was contrary to its commitments under the UN Charter and we should oppose it.
- The above plus “whatever it takes, however long it takes.”
- It’s none of our business.
My view is a variant of #2 above. I disagree with #1—it’s just too cynical and amoral. I believe #3 is impractical. I suspect that the longer the war drags on the more Americans will believe #4.
It’s still not clear when the conditions for this war’s end will emerge or what the circumstances will be. The conflict is still primarily one of attrition, but the will to keep fighting has not yet culminated. As long as that remains the case, the lame efforts by the Trump administration to get a deal, which so far have only favored one side, will continue to be stupid non-starters.
I dont think I have seen many serious thinkers, not just snarky blog writers, suggesting number 1. Are we going to cry if Russia is weakened? No. Are we getting some benefits in observing how modern warfare is changing? Sure. However, I think it mostly comes down to how much does Russia want to acquire new territory from Ukraine (part of their old empire) vs how much Ukraine, knowing what it was like to belong to Russia in the past, is willing to fight. So far they both look willing to keep fighting.
The US part of this should be along the lines of #2. It looks like the EU is picking up spending on arms production. The UK recently announced they expect Eu plus Ukrainian shell production to match Russia in 2026. Putin finally got EU nations to do what every US POTUS had failed at, assuming all of the new building takes place.
Steve
OT- I know you were interested in the facts about ICE cases. Did you notice that the woman ICE shot 5 times because she was supposedly trying to ram them was released with all charges dropped after they reviewed the videos? Again, I am not saying all claims about violence against ICE agents are false but there is a strong pattern of strong claims made about violence, followed by arrest and detainment, followed by all charges being dropped.
Steve
This was never a Ukrainian vs. Russian war. This war was deliberately started by US/ NATO in 2014 in an attempt to overthrow the Russian government so that Russia could be broken up and the pieces handed out among the US/NATO for exploitation. This has been admitted by the various Washington “think” who generate American foreign policy.
That scheme has failed, and now the US/NATO must pay the piper. The 28 points that have been published ignore Russia’s demands for a new security arrangement that protects Russia’s interests. The 28 points will be rejected, and the war will be settled on the battlefield.
Trump promised to end the war immediately. He had ample opportunity to do so, but he embraced it under neocon pressure, and now it is his. He will lose it and suffer a greater humiliation than Biden did in Kabul or the US did at Saigon. Meanwhile, a functioning democracy of some 50 millions, or so, its reduced to a wasteland occupied by some 15 to 20 million refugees living under a Nazi kleptocracy.
The evil empire lives in Washington, DC, and it spends its time trashing the whole planet. You should wish for its destruction, not the destruction of its foreign enemies.
Turns out that peace plan was the Russian wishlist leaked by the Russians per Rubio. Trump’s people were too stupid to realize that so people just assumed it was the real thing.
Steve