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At first, the former US president appeared to take a strong approach on the Ukrainian conflict. Following delivering statements of "significant ramifications" last August should Putin carried on hindering ceasefire negotiations, the former president ultimately imposed considerable penalties on the Russian primary oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil. This move significantly hindered the Russian leader's capability to finance his aggression in Ukraine.

But, via his recently unveiled 28-point peace plan for the conflict, that was developed by US and Russian diplomats excluding Ukraine's or EU participation, Trump has clearly reverted to his favorable to Russia position.

Benefiting Invasion

Trump's plan would essentially reward the Russian leader for attacking a sovereign nation while leaving the country's democratic system in peril. Despite ringing proclamations that "The nation's autonomy will be upheld", much of the initiative actually compromise that very sovereignty. What represents a Moscow's wish would likely be a Ukrainian nightmare.

Reflecting his real-estate past, Trump continues to treat the war as a basic border issue, like ceding Russia a section of Ukraine's land will please the president. However, Russia's war is not only about dominating a damaged area of industrial-devastated land in the Donbas region. Rather, it is about the nation's democratic governance – and the Russian leader's apparent desire to eliminate it so it no longer functions as an attractive model for the Russian people of the responsible leadership that his growing autocracy prevents them.

Border Concessions

Although keeping in position the already separated regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, Trump's initiative would compel Ukraine to abandon the whole Donetsk region. Beyond benefiting Russia with land that its troops have been unable to seize in over a decade of conflict, this giveaway would make Ukraine's defenses dangerously compromised.

The area is the site of the nation's well-known "fortress belt", the fortified military defenses that are a key obstacle to enemy progress. The proposal would have Ukraine leave these positions, leaving Putin a open path to the capital should he later decide to resume the war.

Military Restrictions

Additionally, in a step that would enable renewed fighting simpler for the Russian military, Trump would require the nation to cut the size of its military from their existing large number personnel to a maximum of six hundred thousand. Significantly, the proposal places no similar restrictions on the invading army.

Apparently as a gesture to Russia's campaign to characterize Ukraine's legitimate administration as extremists, Trump's plan asserts: "Any radical doctrine and practices must be condemned and forbidden." Seemingly to emphasize this element, it demands that "Ukraine will hold elections in 100 days" of a truce. Meanwhile, Trump places no requirement that the Russian leader jeopardize his dictatorship by conducting democratic processes in his own country.

Protection Commitments

Admittedly, the proposal makes Russia commit not to "enter other states" and to "establish in law its position of non-violence towards Europe and Ukraine". But considering that the Russian leadership has violated comparable agreements in the previous instances – for example the Budapest accord, in which Russia committed to honor Ukraine's sovereignty in exchange for relinquishing its former Soviet nuclear weapons, and the 2014-2015 Minsk agreements, in which Moscow agreed to a halt in fighting and a restoration of captured land in the region to the government – why should the international community believe Russia now?

For this reason Ukraine has been so insistent on external security guarantees. While the plan promises a "immediate unified armed reaction" should Russia restart its military campaign, and provides that "The nation will receive strong defense commitments", the details range from vague to troubling. The initiative would not just prevent Ukraine alliance membership but also prevent member states from deploying troops on the nation's land, effectively preventing the peacekeeping contingent, reportedly headed by Britain and France, on which the Ukrainian government had been counting to deter Putin from rebuilding his weakened military, re-equipping, and resuming aggression.

Global Concern

A separate supplementary accord reportedly would offer the nation with a similar to NATO protection assurance, in which any subsequent "major, planned, and continuous military assault" by Russia on the country "will be treated as an assault threatening the peace and security of the Western nations." This implies a defense action. Yet unlike a capable national defense – the nation's most reliable defense against renewed Russian aggression – the credibility of the side agreement would depend on the willingness of alliance members, like the US administration, to react militarily to Putin's attacks, a response they have {not