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Initially, Donald Trump seemed to take a resolute stance concerning the Ukrainian conflict. After making warnings of "significant ramifications" last August should Putin continued hindering ceasefire discussions, Trump finally imposed considerable restrictions on Russia's biggest energy firms, Rosneft and Lukoil. This decision seriously hindered Putin's capacity to finance his military invasion in the region.

But, via his recently unveiled 28-point peace plan for Ukraine, that was developed by both nations' representatives lacking Ukraine's or European involvement, the former president has apparently reverted to his favorable to Russia stance.

Favoring Aggression

Trump's initiative would essentially reward the Russian leader for occupying Ukraine while putting the country's democracy in jeopardy. Despite ringing declarations that "The nation's autonomy will be affirmed", significant aspects of the proposal actually undermine that very independence. Seen as a Russian ideal would certainly be a Ukrainian nightmare.

Demonstrating his business past, the former president seems to consider the Ukrainian conflict as a mere land disagreement, as if ceding Putin a part of Ukraine's territory will please the leader. However, Russia's invasion is not only about dominating a destroyed region of deindustrialized territory in eastern Ukraine. It is about Ukraine's democracy – and Putin's clear desire to destroy it so it ceases to functions as an attractive model for the Russian citizens of the responsible government that his increasing dictatorship denies them.

Border Giveaways

While maintaining in position the already divided oblasts of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, the plan would require Ukraine to surrender the entire this eastern territory. Aside from favoring Russia with territory that its forces have been unable to capture in more than a decade of warfare, this giveaway would make Ukrainian defenses dangerously compromised.

This region is the location of Ukraine's highly-touted "stronghold system", the entrenched military defenses that represent a essential obstacle to enemy progress. The proposal would have the Ukrainian military surrender these positions, leaving Russian forces a unobstructed path to Kyiv if he later choose to restart the hostilities.

Defense Restrictions

Additionally, in a step that would make additional hostilities more feasible for Russia, the plan would mandate the nation to diminish the scale of its armed forces from their present approximately 800,000 soldiers to a maximum of this lower number. Importantly, the proposal places no similar restrictions on Russia's military.

Seemingly as a accommodation to Russia's attempts to characterize Ukraine's chosen by the people government as extremists, the proposal declares: "Any Nazi doctrine and actions must be condemned and prohibited." Apparently to emphasize this aspect, it insists that "Ukraine will hold democratic votes in three months" of a ceasefire agreement. Meanwhile, Trump places no condition that the Russian leader jeopardize his authoritarian rule by conducting elections in Russia.

Protection Assurances

Admittedly, the initiative has the Russian Federation promise not to "enter bordering nations" and to "enshrine in law its stance of peaceful relations towards Europe and the Ukrainian people". But considering that the Russian leadership has breached similar treaties in the history – for example the 1994 Budapest memorandum, in which the Russian government committed to honor Ukraine's borders in exchange for relinquishing its historical nuclear arsenal, and the 2014-2015 Minsk agreements, in which Moscow promised to a halt in fighting and a return of occupied land in eastern Ukraine to Ukrainian control – for what reason should the international community trust Putin this time?

For this reason the Ukrainian government has been so insistent on external protection assurances. While the plan threatens a "immediate joint defense action" in case the Russian Federation restart its invasion, and includes that "The nation will receive reliable protection assurances", the particulars include unclear to troubling. The plan would not only prevent Ukraine accession to NATO but also preclude member states from stationing forces on Ukrainian territory, thereby preventing the reassurance force, likely headed by Britain and France, on which Ukraine had been depending to deter Putin from replenishing his reduced troops, rearming, and reinvading.

World Concern

A separate supplementary accord reportedly would provide the nation with a similar to NATO security guarantee, in which any future "serious, deliberate, and ongoing aggression" by Russia on Ukraine "shall be regarded as an assault endangering the stability and safety of the Western nations." This implies a defense action. However unlike a capable Ukraine's armed forces – Ukraine's best defense against renewed hostilities – the effectiveness of the parallel accord would rely on the willingness of Nato leaders, like Trump, to react with force to Putin's hostilities, a response they have {not