When Courage and Determination Aren't Enough

 

"The United States does not believe that NATO membership for Ukraine is a realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement."

"Instead, any security guarantee must be backed by capable European and non-European troops."

"To be clear, as part of any security guarantee, there will not be U.S. troops deployed to Ukraine."

"These negotiations are led by President Trump. Everything is on the table in his conversation with Vladimir Putin and [Volodymyr] Zelenskyy."

"What he decides to allow and not allow is at the purview of the leader of the free world, of President Trump."

"We have not said in any way we are abandoning our allies in Europe. There have been no decisions on troop levels, but that’s a discussion to be had by the commander-in-chief in these high-stakes negotiations."

"[Ukraine's security guarantees should be backed by] capable European and non-European troops".

"If these troops are deployed as peacekeepers to Ukraine at any point, they should be deployed as part of a non-NATO mission and they should not be covered under Article 5 [the alliance's mutual defence clause]".

U.S. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth

Pete Hegseth said at the NATO meeting of defence ministers that Donald Trump was ‘the perfect dealmaker at the table’. Photograph: Yves Herman/Reuters

"I had a meaningful conversation with @POTUS. "

"We long talked about opportunities to achieve peace, discussed our readiness to work together at the team level, and Ukraine's technological capabilities — including drones and other advanced industries."

"I had a long and detailed conversation with President Trump. I appreciate his genuine interest in our shared opportunities and how we can bring about real peace together. We discussed many aspects—diplomatic, military, and economic—and President Trump informed me about what Putin told him."

"We believe that America’s strength, together with Ukraine and all our partners, is enough to push Russia to peace."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

According to U.S. President Donald Trump, a long and fruitful conversation that took place between himself and Russian President Vladimir Putin has assured him that "negotiations" on ending the war that Moscow imposed on Ukraine can proceed. Even while his Secretary of Defence alluded to the impossibility of Ukraine imagining that it could reclaim the one-sixth of its territory currently occupied by Russia and annexed to become part of Greater Russia. While Ukraine must be prepared to surrender its territory to Russia, its unrealistic ambitions to join NATO must now also be abandoned.

 

The peace agreement that the Trump Administration is bargaining for with Moscow will have its cost; Ukraine in effect surrendering its sovereign territory to the Russian bear which has on many occasions expressed its love affair with territorial expansion. A forced surrender of Ukrainian territory can only lead the way to Vladimir Putin looking possessively at other eastern European nations once part of the USSR and grimly anticipating challenges coming their way as well.

 

U.S. Defense Secretary Hegseth's trip to NATO has enlightened its members on the manner in which the new Trump administration intends to manage its relationships with its loyal European allies. There will be no congenial discussions, but there will be ultimatums and given the influence, power and treasury commanded by the United States in world affairs its vision of self-entitlement is not up for discussion. Its Allies have now been apprised of what can be expected of American military and financial support to Kyiv.

 

 

Ukrainian President Zelenskyy is facing his own existential dilemma and musing on that old adage that a half loaf is better than none. A bitter acknowledgement being forced on a man who has stood proudly erect with the substantial assistance given him by his neighbours, fearing the bear next door, and to the present, the United States supporting international law respecting sovereign boundaries. Europe has now been informed of the expectation it must now assume the major share of financial and military responsibilities in Ukraine's defence.

 

A peacekeeping force is being contemplated, a joint venture that includes Europe's assigned military mission, and excluding any U.S. military personnel. This is a European affair, as far as Donald Trump is concerned, and it is to Europe that the world looks, to assume total responsibility. The inestimable moral support (somewhat diluted now as some trickles over to Moscow) that Washington is prepared to allocate to the 31 nations of the NATO alliance (excluding the U.S.) to proffer aid represents the new allied front.

 

NATO, however, is not a candidate, according to Hegseth, for future military presence to police the peace in Ukraine. Europe "must provide the overwhelming share of future lethal and nonlethal aid to Ukraine". Ukraine's dependence on Europe represents 30 percent of its defence needs; with the U.S. picking up another 30 percent, the remainder, Ukraine's own production.

 

The Ukraine Defense Contact Group comprised of those nations who have pledged their support to Kyiv, must come to the realization that it is an "illusionary goal" to return Ukraine to its pre-2014 borders (the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula). "Members of this contact group must meet the moment", Hegseth insisted, of the 50 member-countries providing support to Ukraine since 2022's full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. 

Donald Trump and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy are shown at Trump Tower in New York City on Sept. 27, 2024. (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)

 

"I think President Putin wants peace and President Zelenskyy wants peace and I want peace. I just want to see people stop being killed."

"People didn’t really know what President Putin’s thoughts were. But I think I can say with great confidence, he wants to see it ended also, so that’s good — and we’re going to work toward getting it ended and as fast as possible."

U.S. President Donald J. Trump