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For a brief period, the former US president appeared to adopt a strong position concerning the Ukrainian conflict. After making warnings of "severe ramifications" in August if Russia's president persisted obstructing ceasefire talks, he ultimately enacted considerable restrictions on Russia's primary oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil. This action substantially impacted Putin's capacity to fund his aggression in Ukraine.

Yet, through his newly presented 28-point peace proposal for the conflict, that was created by both nations' representatives without Ukraine's or European involvement, the former president has clearly gone back to his Russia-friendly stance.

Favoring Aggression

This plan would in practice reward the Russian leader for occupying Ukraine while placing Ukraine's democracy in danger. Although strong proclamations that "The nation's sovereignty will be confirmed", significant aspects of the plan effectively weaken that very independence. Seen as a Moscow's wish would probably be a Ukrainian nightmare.

Reflecting his corporate past, the former president persists to treat the situation in Ukraine as a mere territorial dispute, implying ceding Putin a portion of Ukrainian soil will appease the president. But, Russia's war is not simply about occupying a damaged swath of economically weakened land in the Donbas region. It is about Ukraine's democratic governance – and Putin's apparent desire to weaken it so it no longer acts as an attractive example for the Russia's population of the responsible leadership that Putin's increasing autocracy prevents them.

Border Surrenders

While maintaining in position the currently separated Ukrainian provinces of these areas, Trump's initiative would compel Ukraine to give up the whole Donetsk province. In addition to benefiting the Russian Federation with area that its military have been unsuccessful to occupy in over a decade of warfare, this concession would render Ukraine's military defenses severely undermined.

Donetsk is the site of the nation's well-known "defensive line", the fortified military defenses that constitute a critical obstacle to enemy progress. The proposal would have the Ukrainian military surrender these positions, leaving Russian forces a clear path to the capital in case he eventually choose to renew the war.

Military Restrictions

Furthermore, in a step that would facilitate future fighting more feasible for the Russian military, Trump would mandate the nation to reduce the scale of its armed forces from their current approximately 800,000 personnel to a limit of this lower number. Significantly, the plan places no equivalent restrictions on Russian forces.

Seemingly as a concession to Putin's campaign to depict the nation's democratically elected leadership as extremists, the proposal asserts: "Any Nazi ideology and practices must be rejected and prohibited." Seemingly to underscore this element, it demands that "Ukraine will hold democratic votes in three months" of a truce. Meanwhile, the proposal imposes no obligation that the Russian leader risk his regime by allowing democratic processes in his own country.

Defense Commitments

Admittedly, the initiative has Russia promise not to "attack bordering nations" and to "incorporate in regulation its policy of non-aggression towards European nations and the Ukrainian people". But considering that Putin has violated equivalent treaties in the previous instances – including the Budapest accord, in which the Russian government promised to respect the nation's sovereignty in return for surrendering its Soviet-era atomic arms, and the previous peace deals, in which Russia agreed to a ceasefire and a handback of occupied areas in the Donbas to the government – how should we have confidence in this commitment on this occasion?

For this reason Ukraine has been so adamant on external defense commitments. Although the initiative promises a "immediate coordinated military response" should the Russian Federation renew its military campaign, and includes that "The nation will receive reliable protection assurances", the specifics vary from unclear to alarming. The initiative would not only prevent the nation accession to NATO but also preclude alliance nations from deploying troops on Ukraine's soil, thereby blocking the peacekeeping contingent, reportedly headed by the UK and France, on which Ukraine had been counting to prevent Russia from rebuilding his weakened troops, restocking, and resuming aggression.

International Concern

A separate parallel deal according to sources would provide the nation with a Nato-style protection assurance, in which any subsequent "major, planned, and continuous military assault" by Russia on the country "would be considered as an attack endangering the tranquility of the allied countries." That suggests a defense action. But different from a powerful national defense – Ukraine's most reliable deterrent against additional invasion – the credibility of the side agreement would hinge on the willingness of Nato leaders, including the US administration, to react through arms to Putin's hostilities, an action they have {not