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At first, Trump seemed to embrace a firm approach concerning the Ukrainian conflict. Following issuing warnings of "significant ramifications" last August should Russia's president carried on blocking truce discussions, he ultimately imposed major restrictions on the Russian primary petroleum corporations, Lukoil and Rosneft. This action significantly impacted the Russian leader's capacity to finance his war effort in Ukraine.

Yet, with his recently unveiled 28-point peace proposal for Ukraine, that was created by US and Russian representatives lacking Ukrainian or EU input, he has clearly returned to his pro-Putin position.

Favoring Aggression

The former president's plan would effectively reward the Russian leader for invading Ukraine while placing Ukraine's democracy in danger. Despite bold statements that "Ukraine's independence will be affirmed", much of the proposal in reality undermine that same sovereignty. What represents a Moscow's wish would probably be a Ukrainian nightmare.

Showing his business past, Trump persists to view the Ukrainian conflict as a simple border issue, as if giving Putin a part of Ukraine's territory will appease the ruler. However, Putin's war is not only about controlling a damaged region of industrial-devastated land in the Donbas region. Rather, it is about the nation's political system – and the Russian leader's apparent goal to weaken it so it ceases to serves as an attractive standard for the Russian citizens of the democratic leadership that his increasing dictatorship withholds them.

Territorial Giveaways

Although keeping in position the currently divided Ukrainian provinces of these areas, the initiative would require the nation to surrender the entire Donetsk province. Beyond rewarding the Russian Federation with area that its forces have been failed to capture in over a decade of conflict, this concession would make Ukrainian defenses critically compromised.

The area is the location of the nation's much-vaunted "defensive line", the well-established protective structures that constitute a essential impediment to enemy progress. The proposal would have Ukraine surrender these positions, giving Putin a clear route to Kyiv should he later opt to restart the war.

Military Restrictions

Then, in a move that would make additional fighting more feasible for Russia, Trump would mandate the nation to diminish the size of its military from their current 800,000 to 850,000 troops to a limit of this lower number. Significantly, Trump's plan sets no equivalent limits on the invading army.

In what appears as a concession to Putin's campaign to portray Ukraine's chosen by the people leadership as radicals, Trump's proposal states: "All radical belief system and activities must be opposed and forbidden." As if to underscore this element, it demands that "The nation will hold elections in three months" of a truce. However, Trump sets no condition that Putin jeopardize his regime by conducting democratic processes in Russia.

Defense Assurances

Certainly, the plan has the Russian Federation commit not to "invade bordering nations" and to "establish in legislation its position of peaceful relations towards Europe and the Ukrainian people". But given that Putin has violated comparable agreements in the previous instances – for example the Budapest accord, in which the Russian government promised to honor Ukraine's borders in exchange for giving up its Soviet-era nuclear arsenal, and the 2014-2015 Minsk agreements, in which Russia committed to a truce and a restoration of captured areas in eastern Ukraine to Kyiv – why should anyone have confidence in Russia now?

This explains the Ukrainian government has been so insistent on external defense commitments. Although the plan threatens a "strong unified defense action" if the Russian Federation renew its invasion, and states that "Ukraine will receive reliable defense commitments", the specifics vary from fuzzy to concerning. The proposal would not just prevent Ukraine accession to NATO but also prohibit alliance nations from positioning military personnel on Ukraine's soil, effectively precluding the security presence, presumptively led by European powers, on which the Ukrainian government had been counting to prevent Putin from restoring his diminished military, rearming, and resuming aggression.

Global Concern

Another side agreement reportedly would grant Ukraine with a Nato-style security guarantee, in which any future "serious, planned, and continuous armed attack" by Russia on the country "would be considered as an assault threatening the peace and security of the transatlantic community." This indicates a defense action. Yet in contrast to a strong Ukraine's armed forces – the nation's primary deterrent against renewed Russian aggression – the success of the parallel accord would hinge on the willingness of Nato leaders, like the US administration, to act through arms to Putin's aggression, a response they have {not