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For a brief period, Donald Trump gave the impression to take a strong stance concerning the Ukrainian conflict. After delivering warnings of "severe consequences" during the summer should Vladimir Putin continued obstructing truce discussions, the former president finally imposed considerable penalties on Russia's biggest oil companies, these major energy companies. This action significantly impacted Putin's capacity to fund his aggression in the region.

However, through his latest detailed peace initiative for the conflict, reportedly created by American and Russian representatives excluding Ukraine's or European participation, Trump has clearly returned to his favorable to Russia approach.

Benefiting Invasion

This plan would essentially favor Putin for invading a sovereign nation while leaving the country's political freedom in jeopardy. Although strong declarations that "The nation's sovereignty will be upheld", much of the proposal actually weaken that essential independence. What represents a Moscow's wish would likely be a Ukrainian nightmare.

Showing his business experience, the former president continues to view the situation in Ukraine as a basic territorial dispute, implying ceding Putin a part of Ukraine's territory will satisfy the leader. But, Putin's invasion is not only about controlling a damaged area of industrial-devastated area in the Donbas region. Rather, it is about the nation's democracy – and the Russian leader's apparent intention to weaken it so it no longer serves as an appealing model for the Russia's population of the democratic leadership that Putin's deepening authoritarian rule denies them.

Territorial Surrenders

Although maintaining in position the presently separated Ukrainian provinces of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, Trump's plan would require the nation to surrender the whole Donetsk region. Beyond benefiting Russia with area that its forces have been failed to occupy in over a decade of conflict, this concession would render Ukraine's military defenses dangerously compromised.

Donetsk is the location of the nation's highly-touted "defensive line", the entrenched military defenses that represent a critical impediment to enemy progress. The proposal would have the Ukrainian military leave these defenses, leaving Russian forces a open way to Kyiv if he later opt to resume the hostilities.

Armed Forces Restrictions

Additionally, in a move that would make additional hostilities more feasible for Russia, Trump would mandate the nation to diminish the size of its troops from their current large number troops to a limit of this lower number. Significantly, the initiative sets no such limits on the invading army.

Apparently as a gesture to Putin's efforts to depict the nation's chosen by the people leadership as Nazis, the plan declares: "Every Nazi doctrine and actions must be rejected and forbidden." Seemingly to underscore this point, it insists that "The nation will hold democratic votes in 100 days" of a ceasefire agreement. Meanwhile, the proposal sets no condition that the Russian leader risk his authoritarian rule by conducting elections in his own country.

Protection Guarantees

Admittedly, the plan includes the Russian Federation pledge not to "enter bordering nations" and to "incorporate in legislation its stance of non-violence towards European nations and the Ukrainian people". Yet given that Putin has broken similar accords in the past – including the 1994 agreement, in which Russia pledged to recognize Ukraine's territorial integrity in return for relinquishing its former Soviet nuclear arsenal, and the 2014-2015 Minsk agreements, in which Russia agreed to a halt in fighting and a handback of captured territory in eastern Ukraine to Ukrainian control – how should anyone trust Russia this time?

That is why the Ukrainian government has been so adamant on international defense commitments. While the initiative warns of a "immediate joint armed reaction" in case Russia resume its aggression, and states that "Ukraine will receive strong protection assurances", the details vary from vague to troubling. The proposal would not just prevent Ukraine accession to NATO but also preclude member states from deploying troops on Ukraine's soil, effectively preventing the reassurance force, reportedly led by European powers, on which the Ukrainian government had been relying to deter Putin from restoring his weakened troops, rearming, and reinvading.

World Response

An additional side agreement apparently would offer the nation with a similar to NATO defense commitment, in which any later "major, intentional, and ongoing aggression" by Russia on Ukraine "would be considered as an act of war jeopardizing the peace and security of the transatlantic community." This indicates a defense action. However unlike a capable Ukraine's armed forces – Ukraine's most reliable defense against additional Russian aggression – the credibility of the supplementary deal would hinge on the willingness of alliance members, such as the US administration, to react with force to Putin's attacks, something they have {not