A U.S. ‘solution’ that sounds more like capitulation

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 18/02/2025 (231 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Ukrainians and their supporters may find themselves fast becoming furious over sudden changes to U.S. policy regarding its attempt to repel a Russian invasion.

As he has done since taking the Oval Office earlier this year, U.S. President Donald Trump has upended a policy applecart by way of a long conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin about its ongoing war with Ukraine — a conversation that did not involve Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy or any other representative of the embattled country.

Ukraine was not the sole topic of conversation between Trump and Putin, but their discussion of it reportedly involved the Trump administration making serious concessions to Russia, including taking NATO membership for Ukraine, and the return of Russian-held territories to Kyiv, off the table. (The NATO exclusion is especially unsurprising, as the U.S. doesn’t seem to want to be a member of the alliance itself lately.)

It’s not just Trump shooting from the hip as usual, either. U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth echoed those two points in a meeting with Western allies. Russian officials are delighted at the sudden policy change, and no wonder, after having been ostracized by the West since the conflict began.

This sea change should not come as a surprise. Trump had vowed on the campaign trail to “end the war in Ukraine.”

What is key there is that the war’s conclusion was the only objective, and not necessarily ensuring Ukraine’s victory in a war that, by the way, Russia started by invading its neighbour. Trump has long been friendly with Putin, so between that relationship and Trump’s own apparent desire to wash his hands of complex international problems, it was inevitable Trump’s strategy for ending the war would involve meeting most, if not all, of Russia’s expectations.

A peace deal has not yet been made, so we can’t say just now that the war is over and treaties have been signed. That may come soon, and one would hope Ukraine gets a voice — any voice at all — in the actual negotiations. However, given the U.S.’s role in the conflict as a major provider of military assistance to Ukraine, and thus a key player in Ukraine’s continued ability to fight this war, Trump’s promises are likely to remain part of the final deal.

As much as the global community hoped for an end to the nearly three-year war, the ideal situation for Ukraine and its allies — including Canada — would have involved Russia making the concessions, not the other way around. It was Russia who started this war; it should not be for Ukraine to make sacrifices in order to end it.

For his part, Zelenskyy has said he would agree to meet Putin in person only on the condition that a plan is worked out with Trump, and that he believes Trump is integral to ending the war. On that latter point he’s correct; more’s the pity. The Trump administration’s willingness to yield on some of Russia’s key demands sends a message not just to Putin, but to all potentially hostile foreign powers: that the U.S., the most powerful and well-funded military on Earth, is prepared to quickly roll over in the face of would-be-conquerors in order to get a pesky armed conflict out of its hair.

Ukraine has been devastated by this war. Millions of its people have been scattered across the planet as refugees, and millions more remaining have been displaced and live in fear of another day of bombs falling on their heads.

They deserve better, after all that suffering, than to have the end of all this war, for which they have paid so much, be negotiated behind their backs between the leader who foisted the war upon them and a foreign power who could not seem to care less about their fate.