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Initially, Donald Trump seemed to embrace a strong approach regarding Ukraine. After delivering warnings of "significant repercussions" in August in case Vladimir Putin carried on blocking truce discussions, he finally enacted major restrictions on the Russian primary petroleum corporations, Rosneft and Lukoil. This move significantly affected Putin's capability to fund his war effort in Ukraine.

However, via his latest detailed peace plan for the conflict, which was drafted by both nations' representatives excluding Ukrainian or EU involvement, Trump has seemingly returned to his Russia-friendly position.

Benefiting Invasion

The former president's plan would essentially benefit Putin for attacking a sovereign nation while placing Ukraine's political freedom in jeopardy. Although strong statements that "The nation's independence will be upheld", much of the proposal actually weaken that very sovereignty. This constitutes a Russian ideal would certainly be a Ukrainian nightmare.

Reflecting his business experience, Trump seems to consider the war as a simple border issue, like handing Putin a portion of Ukrainian soil will appease the president. Yet, Putin's military campaign is not merely about controlling a destroyed region of economically weakened area in the Donbas region. It is about the nation's political system – and the Russian leader's obvious intention to destroy it so it no longer serves as an appealing model for the Russia's population of the responsible governance that his growing dictatorship denies them.

Land Concessions

While maintaining in status the already separated oblasts of these areas, Trump's initiative would compel Ukraine to surrender the entire this eastern territory. Beyond favoring Russia with land that its troops have been failed to occupy in exceeding a lengthy period of fighting, this giveaway would leave Ukraine's military defenses severely compromised.

This region is the site of Ukraine's highly-touted "stronghold system", the fortified protective structures that represent a critical impediment to invading forces. Trump would have Ukraine leave these positions, leaving Putin a open path to the capital should he later opt to resume the conflict.

Military Reductions

Furthermore, in a action that would make renewed conflict easier for the Russian military, Trump would require the nation to diminish the scale of its military from their present approximately 800,000 troops to a limit of six hundred thousand. Importantly, Trump's proposal sets no similar constraints on the invading army.

In what appears as a accommodation to Russia's campaign to characterize the nation's chosen by the people government as radicals, the proposal declares: "Any radical ideology and actions must be rejected and forbidden." As if to emphasize this point, it demands that "The nation will hold elections in three months" of a ceasefire agreement. At the same time, the proposal places no obligation that the Russian leader risk his regime by holding democratic processes in his own country.

Defense Assurances

Certainly, the plan makes Russia pledge not to "attack neighboring countries" and to "enshrine in regulation its stance of peaceful relations towards the EU and the Ukrainian people". But taking into account that Putin has broken similar agreements in the previous instances – such as the 1994 Budapest memorandum, in which Russia promised to recognize the nation's territorial integrity in return for relinquishing its former Soviet atomic arms, and the Minsk accords, in which Russia agreed to a ceasefire and a restoration of seized land in the Donbas to Ukrainian control – how should the international community believe Putin now?

That is why Ukraine has been so insistent on international security guarantees. Although the plan threatens a "strong unified armed reaction" if the Russian Federation resume its military campaign, and provides that "The nation will receive reliable defense commitments", the particulars vary from unclear to alarming. The plan would not only deny Ukraine accession to NATO but also prevent Nato members from stationing military personnel on the nation's land, thereby precluding the reassurance force, presumptively headed by European powers, on which Ukraine had been counting to stop Russia from rebuilding his diminished troops, rearming, and resuming aggression.

Global Concern

An additional supplementary accord according to sources would provide the nation with a similar to NATO protection assurance, in which any future "major, planned, and ongoing armed attack" by the Russian Federation on Ukraine "shall be regarded as an attack jeopardizing the stability and safety of the Western nations." That suggests a armed reaction. However different from a strong Ukrainian military – the nation's most reliable deterrent against future invasion – the effectiveness of the parallel accord would hinge on the willingness of Western powers, like Trump, to react militarily to Russia's aggression, a response they have {not