The Murky Plan That Ensures a Future War -- Anne Applebaum
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/11/trumps-war-peace/685024/?gift=hVZeG3M9DnxL4CekrWGK3x5H8-x30wTOq6lDtv0xjW4&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=shareWho will benefit from the White House’s 28-point proposal for Ukraine?
The plan was negotiated by Steve Witkoff, a real-estate developer with no historical, geographical, or cultural knowledge of Russia or Ukraine, and Kirill Dmitriev, who heads Russia’s sovereign-wealth fund and spends most of his time making business deals. The revelation of their plan this week shocked European leaders, who are now paying almost all of the military costs of the war, as well as the Ukrainians, who were not sure whether to take this latest plan seriously until they were told to agree to it by Thanksgiving or lose all further U.S. support. Even if the plan falls apart, this arrogant and confusing ultimatum, coming only days after the State Department authorized the sale of anti-missile technology to Ukraine, will do permanent damage to America’s reputation as a reliable ally, not only in Europe but around the world.
The central points of the plan reflect long-standing Russian demands. The United States would recognize Russian rule over Crimea, Donetsk, and Luhansk—all of which are part of Ukraine. Russia would, in practice, be allowed to keep territory it has conquered in Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. In all of these occupation zones, Russian forces have carried out arrests, torture, and mass repression of Ukrainian citizens, and because Russia would not be held accountable for war crimes, they could continue to do so with impunity. Ukraine would withdraw from the part of Donetsk that it still controls—a heavily reinforced and mined territory whose loss would open up central Ukraine to a future attack.
Not only would this plan cede territory, people, and assets to Russia; it also seems deliberately designed to weaken Ukraine, politically and militarily, so that Russia would find it easier to invade again a year from now, or 10 years from now. According to a version of the text that appeared in the Financial Times yesterday, the plan does state that “Ukraine’s sovereignty would be confirmed.” But it then imposes severe restrictions on Ukrainian sovereignty: Ukraine must “enshrine in its constitution” a promise to never join NATO. Ukraine must shrink the size of its armed forces to 600,000, down from 900,000. Ukraine may not host foreign troops on its soil. Ukraine must hold new elections within 100 days, a demand not made of Russia, a dictatorship that has not held free elections for more than two decades.
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(Thanks for the link share from https://digbysblog.net/2025/11/22/trumps-new-ukraine-plan-goes-over-like-a-lead-balloon/)
= new reply since forum marked as read
After centuries of Russian imperialism they seem to believe that is their identity and destiny. After the Soviet Union collapsed, Europe gave them a great opportunity to become a trading partner and peacefully coexist as an equal with their neighbors. But Russia made the mistake of putting a former KGB guy in charge who had been an insider in the "strongman" Soviet empire, even being stationed near the front in the GDR. Maybe he feels humiliated that Russia is now only nearly twice the size of the second largest country on Earth (Canada).
Any peace agreement would allow Russia to rebuild and restock its military in preparation for the next invasion, and the next one would start from a better vantage point in a weakened Ukraine without NATO--making "progress" easier especially if they could enlist Hungary, Serbia, and/or other former SSRs in their imperial expansionism.
All hail the new Russian Empire! Welcome to St. Vladisberg!
