A plan by Donald Trump to end the bloody war in Ukraine would see the US ally cede territory occupied by Russia in Crimea and the Donbas region.
Details of the plan – which the Trump campaign has dismissed as mere “speculation” – come as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky continues to plead with the US to provide more military aid.
“It is necessary to specifically tell Congress that if Congress does not help Ukraine, Ukraine will lose the war,” Zelensky said said Sunday.
The plan, which sources told The Washington Post they had discussed with Trump or his advisers, would mark a reversal from the Biden administration’s position of sending lethal weapons to Ukraine while helping organizing sanctions against Moscow.
The Biden administration’s mantra as negotiations got underway was to “say nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine,” in an effort to avoid undermining the U.S. ally, which has steadfastly rejected similar terms since the Russian invasion.
Former President Donald Trump has reportedly revealed that his plan to end the war in Ukraine is to have them cede land to Russia
Trump has repeatedly talked about his ability to end the war between Russia and Ukraine in one day, without providing details.
His plan, reported by the WashingtonPostcomes amid increased skepticism about Ukraine in the Republican-led House of Representatives polls which shows that Republicans are increasingly critical of US support for Ukraine.
“Any speculation about President Trump’s plan comes from unnamed and uninformed sources who have no idea what is going on or what will happen,” said Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt. “President Trump is the only one talking about stopping the killings.”
Trump has insisted that Ukraine receive aid given as a loan, as House Speaker Mike Johnson struggles to find a way to bring a Ukrainian package to the table, while facing threats from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) to unseat him to make. The Senate has passed a $95 billion foreign aid package that includes aid to Ukraine.
Accepting territorial losses after the Russian invasion is estimated to deal Kiev a blow more than 30,000 killed in action.
The former president believes people in Ukraine would accept that deal and he thinks both Russia and Ukraine “want to save face, they want a way out,” according to Trump insiders.
Trump has regularly claimed he could end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours and has encouraged Russia to attack NATO members that “don’t pay their dues.”
“If I were president, the war between Russia and Ukraine would never have happened… never in a million years,” Trump said in a video obtained by DailyMail.com in February 2023.
The former president believes people in Ukraine would accept that deal and he thinks both Russia and Ukraine “want to save face, they want a way out.”
Trump has regularly claimed he could end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours
“But even now, if I were president, I could negotiate an end to this terrible and rapidly escalating war within 24 hours.”
It is unclear how Trump would reach that agreement between the warring countries. He previously said he would be able to broker an agreement between the two nations but has not given any support to the negotiations.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has also made it clear that he will not surrender any territory.
During a December news conference with President Joe Biden, the Ukrainian president was asked about the stalled counter-offensive against Russia and whether he would cede territory to end the nearly two-year onslaught.
“That’s crazy, honestly,” Zelensky said through an English interpreter.
‘That is part of Ukrainian society. We are talking about human beings. They are tortured, raped and killed,” he said. ‘That’s not a matter of territory. That is a matter of life, of families, of children, of their history.’
“I don’t know whose idea it is, but I have a question for these people: whether they are willing to give up their children to terrorists.” I don’t think so,” Zelensky said.
Trump was impeached in 2020 for trying to force Zelensky to investigate Biden, his main political rival at the time, as well as his son Hunter Biden and the cybersecurity firm CloudStrike, which Hunter led in Ukraine at the time.
Fiona Hill, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and Trump’s top adviser on Russia, told The Washington Post that Trump’s team is “thinking about this very much in silos, that this is just a Ukraine-Russia thing.”
“They see it as a territorial dispute, rather than a dispute about the entire future of European security and the world order by extension.”
Michael Kofman, an analyst of the Russia-Ukraine war at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a nonpartisan research center, said: “No amount of influence from the United States is likely to force the Ukrainian leadership to engage in policies that would can be. suicide.’
“And no amount of influence that the United States has can force Ukraine to cede territory or make these kinds of concessions. This is a situation where if you are willing to shake hands, the other side wants the rest of the arm very quickly.”
Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for Trump’s campaign, said: “Any speculation about President Trump’s plan comes from unnamed and uninformed sources who have no idea what is going on or what will happen.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has also made it clear that he will not surrender any territory
The US has committed at least $113 billion to Ukraine since the Russian invasion and Biden has insisted America will “not walk away” from the conflict.
Trump was impeached in 2020 for trying to force Zelensky to investigate Biden, his main political rival at the time, as well as his son Hunter Biden and the cybersecurity firm CloudStrike, which Hunter led in Ukraine at the time.
“President Trump is the only one talking about stopping the killings.”
Trump’s reported plan is very different from President Joe Biden’s position on Ukraine.
The US has committed at least $113 billion to Ukraine since the Russian invasion and Biden has insisted America will “not walk away” from the conflict.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed confidence that Ukraine will join NATO and emphasized that support for the embattled country is “rock solid.”
Support for Ukraine and the resolve of every country represented here at NATO remains rock solid. We will do everything we can; Allies will do everything they can to ensure that Ukraine gets what it needs to continue to face Russia’s continued aggression, he said.
He also called on Congress to move forward with aid to Ukraine. Conservatives on Capitol Hill have blocked a $60 billion military aid package, ultimately leading to severe ammunition shortages for Ukraine’s armed forces.
This allowed the Russian army to push back Kiev’s forces along virtually the entire 900-kilometer front line.