What does NRC think | Donald Trump’s partisan negotiators make the way to a just peace in Ukraine more than shorter

That Donald Trump did not succeed in terminating the Russian war against Ukraine within 24 hours as soon as he would become president – forgive him. But with its authoritarian way of ‘mediating’, the self -proclaimed deal maker in the White House has managed to braid such a Gordian knot within two months that the chance of a sustainable and just peace seems to be further away rather than closer. Anyone looking at the ‘deals’ that Trump has forged so far can only conclude that the Russia of Vladimir Putin, the aggressor in this war, is the big winner, and Ukraine is being pushed deeper and deeper into trouble.

The ceasefire on the Black Sea that came about last week is an example of the bias of Trumps mediators. After Ukraine had an unconditional agreement with the American proposal, it was the turn of the Kremlin. After a day of negotiating, Washington reported triumphantly that Russia also agreed, but learned further examination that the agreement had changed radically. For example, the Russians demanded suspension of economic sanctions and the return of a number of Russian banks in Swift, the international payment system.

The latter is also impossible without the help of the European Union – and it rightly does not cooperate. Those international economic punishments were an answer to the Russian invasion in Ukraine, and nothing has changed, says Brussels.

Given the Ukrainian dependence on American military support, it continues to run on eggs with Washington for Kyiv. Trump already suspended military aid and intelligence at the beginning of March, with major consequences for the war. Whether Ukraine agrees with this unfair deal, or rejects him – in both cases Russia is the big winner. And that for an agreement that Kyiv is relatively little use: with a successful Ukrainian drone campaign, Russia’s Zwarte Seavloot was largely driven out of the waters around Crimea last year.

The transparent way in which Washington and Moscow try to force Ukraine into ‘peace’ mainly causes distrust in Kyiv. Certainly now that Ukraine has the feeling of being extorted with an American raw material deal that will hang the country around the neck for years for years.

Nobody feels better than Putin the new relationships. In recent years he has not wanted to arrange an inch to get peace while he has the key: Putin started the war himself – and he can still end him today.

But he has time, as long as Russia wins on the battlefield site. And now that Trumps mediators sometimes sound like the wish list that the Kremlin spokespersons read every day, Putin demands more. Undermining Ukraine, NATO and the American-European relationships, a Russian return to world trade and normalization of relations with Washington. Moscow even demands Ukrainian areas that did not conquer war in eleven years. Putin, an American columnist wrote last week, plays Trump as a Stradivarius.

For example, the net revenue of two months of Trump is almost nil when it comes to peace in Ukraine. For the European allies of Ukraine, the message remains the same: they will have to be full behind Kyiv and take responsibility for Ukrainian safety. This war enters the whole of Europe.

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