Trump and Putin are both singing the same songs they have all along, but it truly went off-key this past week when Trump claimed his peace plan turned out to be a suspected translation from Russian and did nothing but repeat what Putin has wanted since Trump and he met in Alaska. Putin's position has never wavered from a nearly complete surrender of Ukraine to him. Without thinking, rolling off his tongue, Trump demanded Zelensky accept this surrender or else "Trump says Zelensky can agree to peace plan or ‘fight his little heart out’ and once again implied or left open the question if the US will or will not send them more aid.
Not only should Trump be condemned for singing Putin's tune, but he is opening himself to another bipartisan legislative pushback post Eptsein doc flap as it is believed by observers that Ukraine has a significant number of supporters on both sides of the aisle.
I wrote this October 30 after Trump's address to the Israeli parliament, and nothing changed since then, either.. Only in the case of Trump's "acceptance of the Russian wish list", both Europe and the bipartisan Ukraine support in Congress pushed back with a roar and Europe and Zelensky met in Switzerland for an emergency meeting on November 23 and Secretary of State Rubio tried to mute and confuse things.. From my blog post October 30, Trump: Once again, Trump discussed Ukraine in a very public forum, prefacing his remarks with the usual attempt to excuse his not being able to end the conflict on day one. It is always: he is always claiming that if he, Trump, were president at the time, there would never have been a war. The rest of that sentence should be: it was because Ukraine was absorbed into Russia with his blessing.. The message to Putin would have been from Trump: it is ok, Vladimir, to keep on going to reassemble the boundaries of the old USSR influence, Putin's publicly stated goal, and we would not help stop you.
Update 11/24/2025
How to end the conflict in Ukraine? Tom Friedman's opinion piece in the NY Times over the weekend made a lot of sense.
Freeze forces in place without ceding territory.
Station European/U.S. security forces along ceasefire lines.
Require Russia to pay reparations and remain under sanctions.
Guarantee Ukraine’s path to EU membership.
(My note: Ukraine's revolt against Russian domination began in 2014 with popular street demonstrations fueled by disgust of corruption by Putin's puppet presdient of Ukraine and by a desire to turn west to join the EU)
What is missing is how to get Russia to agree: Russia thinks time is on its side< but the only way to get them to agree is for the WEST, including the US, to give Ukraine the ability to keep the battle line frozen as it is now by providing long-term commitment of military aid.
The main obstacle to this is Trump himself, who puts Russia first, instead of the US, in some very mistaken thought that feeding the Russian beast will somehow stop Russia in its stated goal of conquering all of Ukraine and re-establishing Eastern Europe as its satellites. they dominated in the Cold War.
Note: Friedman leaves out Ukraine's NATO membership but agrees on EU membership. I would think that mutual defense treaties could exist outside of NATO, either with the EU or individually with willing individual partners. The security element is the vital requirement of any peace plan.
European allies disagree with the U.S. proposal to end negotiations over the Ukraine war. Big stumbling blocks: assurances on Ukraine's protection and security against further Russian aggression, and capping Ukraine's military size. Actually, these are more than just stumbling blocks: these are booby trapped, tank-teeth roadblocks. Ukraine had no input or presence in the Russian-US proposal or in the European meeting with the US in
Switzerland. European allies disagree with the U.S. proposal to end Ukraine war negotiations. Big stumbling blocks: assurances on Ukraine's protection and security against further Russian aggression, and capping Ukraine's military size. Actually, these are more than just stumbling blocks: these are booby trapped, tank-teeth roadblocks. Ukraine had no input or presence in the Russian-US proposal or in the European meeting with the US in Switzerland. European allies disagree with U.S. proposal to end Ukraine war negotiations, per Fox News.
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