By Palladium
US President Donald Trump is neither a fan of history nor a deep thinker, but he has been very lucky. It is, therefore, not surprising that he tried to foist a 28-point peace plan on Ukraine in order to bring the Russo-Ukrainian war begun in February 2022 to an end. Largely drafted by the Russian official, Kirill Dmitriev, and containing provisions such as imposing a limit on Ukraine’s armed forces (to some 600,000), preventing the invaded country from joining NATO or allowing NATO forces on its soil, and Russia keeping the entire Donbas region, the deal virtually rewarded Russian invasion. As expected, Russian president Vladimir Putin gave cautious approval to the plan. But against the strident opposition from Ukraine and European Union countries, with President Volodymyr Zelensky poignantly suggesting that the deal was a Hobson’s choice that left Ukraine with the awkward option of keeping the friendship and partnership of the US or keeping its dignity, the deal has been considerably edited and watered down to 22 points to the chagrin of Russia.
Probably the only advantage for Ukraine in the original 28-point deal is a security guarantee by the United Kingdom, some European countries, Canada, Turkey, and implausibly Russia itself. The controversial deal, sold by US negotiator Steve Witkof as a US deal when he knew it was a Russian deal, reminds the world of the June 1919 Treaty of Versailles which not only inaccurately cast Germany as the loser in World War I but also subjected it to burdensome reparations. The Treaty of Versailles presaged the grand 1938 Munich appeasement that failed to prevent World War II. Now, another appeasement, probably worse than the World War I stalemate and the Munich Agreement, is in the offing. It remains to be seen whether Mr Trump’s shortsighted appeasement will not in turn produce a worse debacle in the years ahead, even after the guns have long fallen silent in the Russo-Ukrainian War.
