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For a brief period, the former US president appeared to take a firm approach on Ukraine. Following issuing warnings of "significant ramifications" during the summer in case Putin persisted hindering truce discussions, Trump eventually enacted considerable sanctions on the Russian two largest energy firms, Rosneft and Lukoil. This move seriously hindered Putin's capability to finance his aggression in the region.

However, via his recently unveiled 28-point peace initiative for the conflict, reportedly developed by American and Russian officials without Ukrainian or European participation, Trump has clearly gone back to his Russia-friendly position.

Favoring Aggression

The former president's proposal would essentially favor Putin for attacking a sovereign nation while leaving the country's democratic system in peril. Despite strong declarations that "The nation's autonomy will be confirmed", large portions of the plan effectively undermine that very autonomy. This constitutes a Kremlin dream would certainly be a catastrophe for the nation.

Demonstrating his business experience, the former president continues to consider the war as a mere territorial dispute, as if handing Russia a section of Ukrainian soil will satisfy the leader. However, Putin's military campaign is not simply about occupying a destroyed swath of economically weakened territory in Ukraine's east. Instead, it's about Ukraine's democratic governance – and the Russian leader's obvious intention to eliminate it so it ceases to serves as an attractive standard for the Russian people of the accountable government that Putin's deepening dictatorship prevents them.

Land Giveaways

While maintaining in status the already divided oblasts of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, Trump's proposal would require the nation to surrender all of Donetsk region. Aside from favoring the Russian Federation with area that its troops have been failed to seize in more than a decade of fighting, this surrender would render Ukraine's military defenses critically weakened.

The area is the site of the nation's much-vaunted "defensive line", the entrenched defensive positions that are a key obstacle to Russian advances. Trump would have Ukraine abandon these fortifications, giving Putin a unobstructed way to Kyiv should he subsequently decide to restart the hostilities.

Military Limitations

Additionally, in a step that would facilitate additional fighting simpler for Russia, the plan would force Ukraine to diminish the size of its military from their existing approximately 800,000 personnel to a maximum of six hundred thousand. Notably, the plan sets no such constraints on the invading army.

Seemingly as a gesture to Putin's attempts to portray the nation's legitimate administration as extremists, the plan declares: "Any Nazi doctrine and actions must be opposed and forbidden." Seemingly to highlight this point, it requires that "The nation will hold democratic votes in this period" of a ceasefire agreement. However, Trump places no obligation that Putin endanger his authoritarian rule by holding democratic processes in Russia.

Protection Assurances

Admittedly, the proposal includes the Russian Federation pledge not to "enter bordering nations" and to "establish in legislation its stance of non-aggression towards European nations and Ukraine". Yet considering that the Russian leadership has violated equivalent treaties in the previous instances – such as the Budapest accord, in which the Russian government promised to respect the nation's sovereignty in exchange for giving up its former Soviet nuclear arsenal, and the Minsk accords, in which Russia committed to a halt in fighting and a return of seized territory in the Donbas to Kyiv – for what reason should the international community believe this commitment now?

For this reason the Ukrainian government has been so adamant on external defense commitments. While the initiative threatens a "decisive coordinated military response" should Russia restart its aggression, and states that "The nation will receive strong security guarantees", the particulars vary from fuzzy to alarming. The plan would not only deny Ukraine accession to NATO but also preclude Nato members from deploying forces on Ukraine's soil, thus precluding the security presence, presumptively headed by European powers, on which Ukraine had been depending to stop Putin from replenishing his diminished troops, re-equipping, and attacking again.

Global Concern

A separate side agreement reportedly would offer the nation with a similar to NATO security guarantee, in which any subsequent "serious, planned, and continuous military assault" by the Russian Federation on the country "shall be regarded as an assault jeopardizing the peace and security of the transatlantic community." This indicates a armed reaction. But different from a capable Ukraine's armed forces – the nation's most reliable protection against renewed hostilities – the effectiveness of the supplementary deal would hinge on the commitment of Nato leaders, such as Trump, to react militarily to Russia's aggression, a response they have {not