Trump's Ukraine plan: Massive betrayal

Trump's Ukraine peace "plan": A massive betrayal of America's friends — like me
I've fled from two countries to escape Russian aggression. Trust me: The price of Trump's "peace" is far too high

By Dzmitry Halko
War Correspondent, Ukraine and Belarus
Published February 23, 2025 6:00AM (EST)


(Salon) So what did Donald Trump actually do this past week? Something that may well be remembered until the planet gets smashed by an asteroid or goes up in a nuclear fireball. Maybe that's the whole point — making sure his name stays in the history books, no matter how? Scandal, absurdity, outright disaster — especially on the world stage — those are the fastest ways to etch yourself into memory. Trump knows that better than anyone.

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Trump is turning the world upside down, stomping on common sense and sowing pure chaos — admittedly, his standard modus operandi. More specifically, this torpedoes what Trump has tried to pass off as a "peace initiative." How do you talk peace and confront aggression while blaming the victim? How do you negotiate the victim into making major concessions while all but telling them to pack up and leave? (This echoes Trump’s demand that the entire Palestinian population of Gaza should be evicted so the U.S. can "own" it, although the situations are not identical.) That’s not diplomacy — it’s a guaranteed dead end. Ukraine can’t accept negotiations under those terms, which means they’re doomed before they even start.

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The Russian world is a fiction, a patchwork of "dead souls." People who speak Russian, who are Orthodox Christians, who were born in the Soviet Union or its successor states — Moscow slaps the label "Russian" on them and claims them as its own. There is no genuine love, no admiration, no choice, no longing — just an imposed identity, a bureaucratic annexation of human lives.

The American world, however, is (or at least was ) entirely different. It’s built on admiration, aspiration and voluntary belonging. People choose to be part of it. They choose to learn its language, adopt its culture, dream its dreams. It’s not dictated by geography, religion or bureaucratic decree — it’s fueled by belief, by the idea that America stands for something bigger than itself. That’s what made America powerful. That is, in fact, what made America great. .................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2025/02/23/ukraine-peace-plan-is-a-massive-betrayal-of-americas-friends--like-me/