The brave people of Ukraine and their president Volodymyr Zelenskyy have not only been fighting off Russia for nearly four years since Vladimir Putin’s invasion, they must fight off the defeatist Donald Trump, who basically wanted Ukraine to surrender under the terms of his hollow pro-Moscow 28-point peace plan.
Whatever the final agreement, it should not be based in the framework of the earlier Trump-Putin Anchorage agreement, which was more of a capitulation than a deal. A draft deal that CBS News obtained last week would include many of the same stipulations, like significant land concessions by Ukraine — including giving up the entire Donetsk region — and abandoning efforts to join NATO.
Nobody should expect that any ultimate resolution will be entirely on Ukraine’s terms or not involve any compromises. This is, unfortunately, what war is; even if you “win,” you’ve lost plenty.
That said, it is in the interest not only of Ukraine but the entire international community to make it clear that Russia did not win this war, which it began with an unprovoked invasion of its smaller neighbor in a naked effort at a land grab, and which it has prosecuted through likely of war crimes and even potential crimes against humanity, such as with its forced deportation of Ukrainian children.
Anything that could be read by the imperialist Putin as akin to a victory, even at a high cost, would end up being an incentive to do it again, and there are plenty of post-Soviet states in the vicinity to which he could turn his eyes next.
How much will the international community support, say, Lithuania or Estonia if they are next on Russia’s chopping block? Putin has certainly demonstrated a willingness to continue throwing troops at his expansionist aspirations, even at significant domestic military, economic and political costs.
The best way to avoid the instability and threat of Ukraine being just the first domino in a broader scheme is to make that first domino fail to topple. The fact that Ukraine and Zelenskyy have reportedly agreed to some version of the deal currently on the table gives us hope that this latest version is one that does not give quite so much away.
After Western governments, including the United States (under both Joe Biden and Trump), have spent these years providing equipment, training and intelligence to Ukrainian forces, they should work to ensure that these investments end up measurably succeeding not just for moral but practical reasons.
We have to wonder if part of the reason that these negotiations have gone so poorly — and that something no one seems to want to say given how invested everyone is in their success — is that Trump is so smitten in thinking that Putin is his pal and also so cocksure of his own ability to get a deal, that the fact of an agreement is more important to him than any of its substance.
With those marching orders (please Russia and get to yes) White House special envoy Steve Witkoff came up with the 28-point outline seemingly straight from the Kremlin. This is not the way to go about high-stakes wartime negotiations shaping the lives of millions. If a successful deal is reached, it’ll be in spite of, not because, this approach by Trump.
