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For a brief period, Trump seemed to take a resolute stance regarding the Ukrainian conflict. After making threats of "significant consequences" last August in case Russia's president continued blocking ceasefire discussions, he eventually enacted substantial penalties on the Russian biggest oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil. This move significantly impacted the Russian leader's ability to support his military invasion in the region.

Yet, through his recently unveiled detailed peace plan for the conflict, which was created by both nations' officials excluding Ukraine's or EU involvement, the former president has apparently gone back to his Russia-friendly approach.

Favoring Aggression

The former president's plan would effectively favor Putin for invading a sovereign nation while putting Ukraine's political freedom in jeopardy. Despite bold declarations that "The nation's autonomy will be affirmed", significant aspects of the proposal actually weaken that essential autonomy. Seen as a Moscow's wish would certainly be a Ukrainian nightmare.

Showing his real-estate past, the former president persists to consider the Ukrainian conflict as a mere territorial dispute, as if ceding Putin a part of Ukraine's land will please the president. Yet, Putin's war is not simply about dominating a destroyed swath of industrial-devastated area in Ukraine's east. Rather, it is about Ukraine's political system – and Putin's clear intention to eliminate it so it ceases to serves as an appealing standard for the Russian citizens of the responsible government that Putin's increasing dictatorship denies them.

Border Concessions

Although keeping in place the currently divided regions of these areas, Trump's proposal would require the nation to surrender the entire Donetsk region. In addition to rewarding the Russian Federation with territory that its troops have been failed to occupy in over a lengthy period of fighting, this surrender would render Ukrainian military defenses critically compromised.

Donetsk is the location of the nation's well-known "defensive line", the well-established defensive positions that constitute a key obstacle to invading forces. Trump would have Ukraine abandon these defenses, leaving Putin a open way to Kyiv in case he subsequently decide to resume the conflict.

Armed Forces Restrictions

Additionally, in a action that would make additional hostilities more feasible for Russia, Trump would force the nation to cut the scale of its military from their current large number soldiers to a limit of 600,000. Notably, Trump's plan imposes no such constraints on the invading army.

In what appears as a gesture to Putin's efforts to characterize the nation's democratically elected leadership as radicals, Trump's proposal asserts: "Every extremist doctrine and activities must be condemned and forbidden." As if to underscore this point, it requires that "The nation will hold political contests in 100 days" of a truce. However, Trump sets no condition that the Russian leader jeopardize his dictatorship by allowing votes in Russia.

Protection Assurances

Admittedly, the plan has the Russian Federation promise not to "invade bordering nations" and to "establish in regulation its position of peaceful relations towards the EU and Ukraine". Yet considering that the Russian leadership has broken equivalent accords in the past – such as the 1994 Budapest memorandum, in which the Russian government committed to respect the nation's borders in exchange for relinquishing its historical nuclear arsenal, and the Minsk accords, in which Moscow promised to a ceasefire and a handback of occupied land in eastern Ukraine to Kyiv – how should the international community trust Russia this time?

For this reason Ukraine has been so determined on western defense commitments. Although the initiative promises a "immediate unified armed reaction" if the Russian Federation resume its military campaign, and provides that "The nation will receive strong defense commitments", the particulars range from fuzzy to alarming. The proposal would not just deny Ukraine accession to NATO but also prohibit member states from stationing troops on the nation's land, thus preventing the peacekeeping contingent, reportedly headed by the UK and France, on which the Ukrainian government had been counting to prevent Putin from restoring his weakened forces, re-equipping, and reinvading.

World Concern

A separate supplementary accord according to sources would grant Ukraine with a similar to NATO security guarantee, in which any subsequent "significant, intentional, and continuous aggression" by Russia on Ukraine "will be treated as an attack endangering the peace and security of the Western nations." That suggests a armed reaction. Yet unlike a powerful national defense – the nation's most reliable defense against future hostilities – the credibility of the side agreement would depend on the dedication of Nato leaders, like the US administration, to react through arms to Russia's attacks, an action they have {not