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At first, Donald Trump appeared to embrace a strong position regarding Ukraine. After issuing threats of "serious repercussions" last August if Russia's president carried on blocking ceasefire talks, Trump eventually imposed considerable restrictions on the Russian biggest energy firms, Rosneft and Lukoil. This decision significantly affected the Russian leader's capacity to fund his war effort in Ukraine.

However, through his latest comprehensive peace plan for the conflict, which was created by both nations' representatives excluding Ukrainian or EU participation, the former president has seemingly returned to his favorable to Russia stance.

Rewarding Invasion

The former president's initiative would effectively reward the Russian leader for attacking a sovereign nation while placing Ukraine's political freedom in danger. Despite bold declarations that "The nation's autonomy will be affirmed", large portions of the initiative in reality undermine that very autonomy. What represents a Russian ideal would certainly be a catastrophe for the nation.

Demonstrating his real-estate background, the former president continues to consider the Ukrainian conflict as a basic border issue, as if giving Putin a section of Ukrainian land will satisfy the leader. But, Putin's military campaign is not only about controlling a damaged region of deindustrialized area in the Donbas region. It is about the nation's democratic governance – and the Russian leader's obvious intention to eliminate it so it ceases to serves as an enticing standard for the Russian citizens of the democratic government that Putin's increasing dictatorship denies them.

Border Surrenders

While maintaining in status the currently split oblasts of these areas, the initiative would force Ukraine to surrender the entire this eastern territory. Aside from rewarding Russia with area that its troops have been unsuccessful to capture in over a decade of conflict, this giveaway would make Ukrainian defensive positions dangerously undermined.

Donetsk is the place of Ukraine's highly-touted "fortress belt", the fortified defensive positions that represent a critical barrier to Russian advances. Trump would have Ukraine leave these fortifications, leaving Putin a clear route to the capital if he later choose to renew the hostilities.

Armed Forces Restrictions

Additionally, in a action that would facilitate renewed fighting easier for Russia, the plan would force Ukraine to cut the size of its armed forces from their current large number soldiers to a maximum of 600,000. Importantly, the proposal sets no such limits on Russia's military.

Apparently as a gesture to Putin's campaign to characterize Ukraine's legitimate government as extremists, Trump's plan asserts: "Any Nazi belief system and activities must be rejected and forbidden." As if to emphasize this element, it demands that "The nation will hold democratic votes in three months" of a ceasefire agreement. At the same time, Trump sets no requirement that the Russian leader endanger his regime by allowing democratic processes in Russia.

Security Assurances

Admittedly, the proposal makes Russia pledge not to "attack other states" and to "establish in law its position of non-aggression towards Europe and the Ukrainian people". Yet considering that the Russian leadership has breached similar accords in the previous instances – such as the Budapest accord, in which the Russian government pledged to honor Ukraine's borders in return for surrendering its Soviet-era nuclear arsenal, and the previous peace deals, in which Russia promised to a ceasefire and a restoration of seized territory in eastern Ukraine to the government – for what reason should the international community have confidence in Russia now?

This explains the Ukrainian government has been so insistent on external protection assurances. Although the proposal warns of a "strong joint armed reaction" in case the Russian Federation restart its aggression, and states that "Ukraine will receive strong protection assurances", the specifics vary from fuzzy to troubling. The plan would not just deny the nation alliance membership but also prevent alliance nations from stationing military personnel on Ukrainian territory, effectively precluding the security presence, presumptively headed by Britain and France, on which the Ukrainian government had been depending to prevent Russia from replenishing his reduced troops, re-equipping, and resuming aggression.

World Response

Another parallel deal according to sources would offer the nation with a alliance-like protection assurance, in which any subsequent "major, deliberate, and sustained aggression" by the Russian Federation on Ukraine "shall be regarded as an act of war threatening the stability and safety of the transatlantic community." That suggests a military response. Yet unlike a capable Ukraine's armed forces – the nation's primary defense against renewed Russian aggression – the effectiveness of the supplementary deal would hinge on the willingness of Nato leaders, including the US administration, to react militarily to Putin's aggression, an action they have {not