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For a brief period, the former US president seemed to take a resolute stance concerning the Ukrainian conflict. Following delivering warnings of "severe repercussions" during the summer if Russia's president continued hindering peace negotiations, he finally enacted substantial restrictions on Russia's two largest oil companies, these major energy companies. This decision substantially affected Putin's capability to fund his military invasion in the region.

Yet, via his latest 28-point peace plan for the conflict, that was developed by American and Russian officials lacking Ukrainian or European involvement, Trump has clearly returned to his favorable to Russia position.

Favoring Aggression

The former president's proposal would essentially benefit Putin for attacking a sovereign nation while putting the country's political freedom in jeopardy. Despite bold statements that "Ukraine's sovereignty will be confirmed", significant aspects of the initiative actually undermine that very sovereignty. This constitutes a Moscow's wish would certainly be a Ukrainian nightmare.

Demonstrating his business past, the former president continues to consider the situation in Ukraine as a basic border issue, like ceding Russia a part of Ukrainian land will please the ruler. However, Putin's invasion is not only about controlling a destroyed area of deindustrialized territory in eastern Ukraine. It is about Ukraine's political system – and Putin's clear goal to weaken it so it no longer serves as an appealing example for the Russia's population of the responsible leadership that his growing dictatorship denies them.

Border Concessions

Although freezing in position the presently separated Ukrainian provinces of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, Trump's plan would compel Ukraine to give up the whole Donetsk region. In addition to benefiting Russia with territory that its troops have been failed to seize in more than a ten years of conflict, this surrender would render Ukrainian military defenses severely undermined.

The area is the place of Ukraine's highly-touted "fortress belt", the fortified military defenses that represent a critical impediment to invading forces. Trump would have the Ukrainian military leave these fortifications, giving Russian forces a clear way to Kyiv in case he later decide to restart the hostilities.

Military Restrictions

Additionally, in a move that would enable renewed hostilities easier for Russia, the plan would mandate the nation to diminish the numbers of its troops from their present approximately 800,000 personnel to a limit of this lower number. Notably, Trump's plan sets no equivalent limits on Russia's military.

In what appears as a accommodation to Putin's attempts to portray the nation's democratically elected leadership as Nazis, Trump's plan declares: "Any Nazi belief system and actions must be rejected and prohibited." Seemingly to underscore this point, it demands that "Ukraine will hold elections in three months" of a truce. However, Trump places no condition that the Russian leader risk his dictatorship by conducting elections in his own country.

Defense Guarantees

Certainly, the proposal makes Russia pledge not to "attack bordering nations" and to "establish in law its position of non-aggression towards European nations and Ukraine". However given that Putin has violated similar agreements in the past – for example the Budapest accord, in which the Russian government pledged to respect Ukraine's sovereignty in return for surrendering its Soviet-era atomic arms, and the Minsk accords, in which Moscow agreed to a truce and a handback of captured territory in eastern Ukraine to Ukrainian control – how should the international community have confidence in Russia this time?

For this reason the Ukrainian government has been so adamant on external defense commitments. While the initiative threatens a "immediate joint armed reaction" should the Russian Federation renew its military campaign, and includes that "Ukraine will receive strong security guarantees", the specifics vary from vague to alarming. The plan would not only prevent the nation accession to NATO but also prohibit alliance nations from deploying troops on the nation's land, thus blocking the reassurance force, presumptively headed by Britain and France, on which the Ukrainian government had been depending to stop Russia from replenishing his weakened troops, restocking, and reinvading.

Global Concern

Another side agreement according to sources would offer the nation with a alliance-like security guarantee, in which any subsequent "significant, planned, and sustained armed attack" by Russia on Ukraine "shall be regarded as an assault endangering the peace and security of the allied countries." This implies a armed reaction. However different from a capable Ukraine's armed forces – Ukraine's best protection against renewed hostilities – the credibility of the side agreement would rely on the dedication of Nato leaders, like the US administration, to respond with force to Putin's hostilities, an action they have {not