Donald Trump makes clear his subservience to Vladimir Putin with his 28-point plan for Ukraine’s surrender to invader Russia.
Ukrainian-born independent journalist Olga Nesterova argues that the plan, to which Trump is demanding Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s capitulation by Thursday, violates the United Nations Charter, the Helsinki Final Act, the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, the Rome Statute, and international human rights law.
Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014 to seize Crimea. Russia expanded its aggression when it launched the current war in 2022, with the goals of overthrowing its democracy and absorbing the nation into the Russian sphere of domination. Ukraine committed no crime to prompt Russia’s attack. Russia is the aggressor.
Yet Trump’s plan treats Ukraine like the war criminal while giving Russia a near total pass.
The plan would limit Ukraine’s armed forces to 600,000 personnel (equal to the number Russia has deployed in or near Ukraine; a cut from the 880,000 it has now resisting Russia’s invasion, but higher than its pre-war peak of 518,500 in 1995). The plan places no limits on the size of Russia’s military.
The plan forbids Ukraine from joining NATO. The plan does not restrict Russia’s ability to form alliances with Iran, China, and North Korea, its partners in this invasion.
The plans forbids NATO from deploying troops in Ukraine, which NATO has not done yet. The plan does not forbid North Korea from deploying troops in Russia, which North Korea has done.
The plan forbids Ukraine from developing nuclear weapons. The plan does not demand that Russia give up nuclear weapons.
The plan gives half of the electricity generated by Ukraine’s Zaporizhia nuclear power plant to Russia. The plan does not demand that Russia ship any oil, natural gas, or other energy resources to Ukraine.
The plan forbids using force to change future territorial arrangements, even as it surrenders to Russia the territory it has seized by force along with some extra land its military has not yet seized.
The plan grants full amnesty for war crimes, the vast majority of which have been committed by Russia on Ukrainian soil, while Ukraine has gone to great lengths to limit its counterattack to military targets in Russia.
The plan bans Nazi ideology and activity, one of the sham points Putin has used to justify his naked aggression. The plan does not ban the murder of journalists and critics or other fascist tactics that Putin has really used to sustain his power and advance Russian imperialism.
The plan requires Ukraine to hold rushed elections within 100 days of the ceasefire. The plan does not require Russia to hold elections or otherwise interfere with Russia’s internal political sovereignty.
The only apparent punishment this plan imposes on the aggressor in this war is the diversion of $100 billion in Russian assets to U.S.-led reconstruction projects in Ukraine, from which the U.S. gets half the profits. Yet the Ukrainian territory most in need of reconstruction is that which the Trump wants Ukraine to surrender to Russia, so most of that $100 billion accrues back to the invader.
Senator Mike Rounds himself has said the 28-point plan Trump touted last week was produced by the Russians.Trump’s plan is certainly a Russian wish list. We can only hope American and Ukrainian negotiators in Geneva right now can work out a more just plan that does not mix up aggressor and aggrieved or demand that Ukraine and the West reward Putin’s immoral invasion… maybe something simple, like, “Russia, get out. Ukraine, welcome to NATO.”