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For a brief period, the former US president gave the impression to adopt a strong stance concerning the Ukrainian conflict. After issuing warnings of "serious repercussions" during the summer should Russia's president carried on hindering truce talks, the former president eventually introduced substantial restrictions on Russia's biggest oil companies, Lukoil and Rosneft. This action significantly affected the Russian leader's ability to support his aggression in Ukraine.

But, via his latest detailed peace initiative for the conflict, that was developed by American and Russian diplomats excluding Ukrainian or European participation, he has apparently returned to his Russia-friendly stance.

Benefiting Military Action

This initiative would effectively reward the Russian leader for invading Ukraine while putting the country's democracy in jeopardy. Although ringing declarations that "Ukraine's independence will be affirmed", large portions of the initiative effectively undermine that essential independence. Seen as a Moscow's wish would likely be a Ukrainian nightmare.

Reflecting his business experience, Trump persists to consider the situation in Ukraine as a mere border issue, like giving Putin a section of Ukraine's land will please the president. However, Putin's invasion is not only about dominating a destroyed area of deindustrialized territory in the Donbas region. Rather, it is about Ukraine's democracy – and Putin's clear intention to destroy it so it ceases to acts as an appealing standard for the Russian people of the democratic governance that Putin's growing authoritarian rule prevents them.

Border Giveaways

While keeping in position the presently split regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, the proposal would compel Ukraine to surrender all of Donetsk region. Aside from rewarding Russia with area that its troops have been unsuccessful to seize in more than a ten years of warfare, this surrender would render Ukraine's military defenses severely weakened.

Donetsk is the location of the nation's much-vaunted "stronghold system", the entrenched military defenses that are a critical barrier to enemy progress. Trump would have the Ukrainian military surrender these defenses, providing Putin a unobstructed path to the capital in case he subsequently choose to restart the conflict.

Defense Restrictions

Additionally, in a step that would enable future conflict more feasible for the Russian military, Trump would force the nation to diminish the numbers of its armed forces from their present large number personnel to a limit of 600,000. Notably, Trump's initiative sets no similar restrictions on the invading army.

Seemingly as a accommodation to Russia's campaign to portray the nation's democratically elected government as Nazis, the proposal declares: "All radical doctrine and practices must be condemned and banned." As if to emphasize this point, it insists that "Ukraine will hold political contests in this period" of a ceasefire agreement. At the same time, Trump places no obligation that the Russian leader endanger his authoritarian rule by holding democratic processes in his own country.

Protection Commitments

Admittedly, the proposal makes the Russian Federation pledge not to "attack neighboring countries" and to "incorporate in regulation its stance of non-violence towards the EU and the Ukrainian people". Yet given that the Russian leadership has breached comparable agreements in the past – for example the 1994 Budapest memorandum, in which the Russian government pledged to respect Ukraine's sovereignty in return for giving up its Soviet-era nuclear arsenal, and the 2014-2015 Minsk agreements, in which Russia committed to a ceasefire and a restoration of seized land in the Donbas to Ukrainian control – why should anyone have confidence in Putin on this occasion?

That is why the Ukrainian government has been so determined on external defense commitments. While the proposal warns of a "immediate coordinated armed reaction" if the Russian Federation resume its invasion, and provides that "The nation will receive strong security guarantees", the details vary from unclear to alarming. The proposal would not only block the nation accession to NATO but also prohibit alliance nations from deploying troops on Ukraine's soil, effectively precluding the reassurance force, likely commanded by Britain and France, on which the Ukrainian government had been relying to stop Russia from replenishing his weakened military, rearming, and resuming aggression.

World Concern

Another parallel deal apparently would provide the nation with a Nato-style security guarantee, in which any future "significant, planned, and ongoing armed attack" by Russia on Ukraine "would be considered as an act of war threatening the peace and security of the Western nations." This indicates a defense action. But unlike a capable Ukrainian military – the nation's best deterrent against additional hostilities – the credibility of the supplementary deal would rely on the commitment of Western powers, like the US administration, to respond militarily to Putin's aggression, a response they have {not