On April 23, while visiting India, U.S. Vice President Vance declared to the media that Washington had made a “very clear proposal” to Russia and Ukraine to reach a peace agreement, and threatened that “the time has come for either both sides to agree or for the U.S. to withdraw from mediation.”<\/p>\n
This so-called “peace plan” actually presupposes that Ukraine would cede large swathes of territory and abandon joining NATO. It can be regarded as a mediation plan resulting in Ukraine suffering heavy failures and losses, and Russia achieving its objectives, ultimately proving that the U.S., with its intentions laid bare, has brazenly and historically betrayed Ukraine and its European partners.<\/p>\n
According to reports, Vance emphasized that both Russia and Ukraine must make territorial concessions, giving up parts of the territories they currently control. Although the final borders might not be drawn exactly along the current battle lines, both sides need to lay down their arms, freeze the conflict, and turn to building a better Russia and Ukraine to stop the killing.<\/p>\n
The U.S. official in charge of security affairs also expressed optimism about the negotiations, believing that all parties have so far been negotiating sincerely.<\/p>\n
Later that evening, following Vance\u2019s “either-or” stance, U.S. President Trump once again publicly slammed Ukrainian President Zelensky\u2019s statements about refusing to give up Crimea, accusing him of fueling the fire and making negotiations more difficult.
\nTrump warned that Zelensky\u2019s rejection of American terms “would only prolong the killing.”<\/p>\n
Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump complained: “Zelensky can have peace, or he can fight another three years and lose the entire country. We are very close to reaching an agreement, but this man, who has no cards in his hand, must now draw a conclusion.”<\/p>\n
White House spokesperson Leavitt also chimed in, saying Trump was “frustrated and running out of patience… President Zelensky seems to be going in the wrong direction.”<\/p>\n
According to a scoop from Axios News Network on the 22nd, last week the U.S. submitted to Ukrainian officials in Paris a “peace plan” that was only one page long, emphasizing that it was the Trump administration’s “final proposal” to turn the Russia-Ukraine war into peace.<\/p>\n
Observers believe that if this proposal is implemented, it would mean a complete victory for Russia’s “special military operation” and permanently exclude Ukraine from NATO; Ukraine would lose about 20% of its territory, Europe\u2019s investments in Ukraine over the past three years would be utterly lost, and the U.S. would profit from it.<\/p>\n
Reportedly, this “ultimate” mediation proposal was drafted after U.S. Middle East Envoy Whitcoff held about a four-hour meeting with Russian President Putin last week, highlighting that the U.S. had fully conceded to Russia’s demands.
\nIn other words, this hasty end to the Russia-Ukraine war is little more than a unilateral Russian ceasefire agreement written in English.<\/p>\n
According to the plan, Russia emerges as the biggest winner of the Russia-Ukraine war:<\/strong><\/p>\n According to this plan, Ukraine becomes the biggest loser of the Russia-Ukraine war<\/strong>:<\/p>\n According to other American media reports, even though the U.S. plan “de facto” recognizes Russian control over most of the four eastern and southern regions of Ukraine, it does not require Russian troops to withdraw.<\/p>\n In addition, a “flexible force” would be established, or a “joint committee” composed of Russia, Ukraine, and a non-NATO country would be set up to supervise the ceasefire and urge implementation of the peace agreement.<\/p>\n The U.S. might participate but would only provide funding, not ground troops.<\/p>\n Russia has publicly opposed the appearance of any NATO troops on Ukrainian soil.<\/p>\n On April 21, Trump revealed that this “peace plan” would be announced within three days. The New York Times<\/em> reported on the 18th, citing a U.S. official, that Ukraine seemed “willing to give up 20% of its territory,” provided that such territorial concessions are only a “factual acknowledgment” of Russian control, not a permanent “legal recognition.”<\/p>\n A “factual acknowledgment” simply means objectively accepting the reality that Ukraine has lost parts of its territory, while “legal recognition” would signify Ukraine permanently giving up the right to reclaim it.<\/p>\n The one-page proposal exposed by U.S. media and the latest statements from Vance and Trump all indicate that the U.S. is determined to sacrifice Ukraine’s interests to please Russia, while profiting from the situation \u2014 this mediation proposal is already a foregone conclusion.<\/p>\n On April 21, Putin told Russian state television that although military operations had resumed after Easter, Russia remained open to any “peace initiatives” and hoped Ukraine would adopt the same position.<\/p>\n If this plan was finalized after U.S.-Russia consultations, Putin has no fundamental reason to oppose it, because it basically fulfills all of Russia\u2019s demands for launching military operations against Ukraine:<\/p>\n The only difference is that Russia may eventually give up part of the territories within the “four regions incorporated into Russia.”<\/p>\n Although Ukraine once invaded Russia\u2019s Kursk region and controlled part of it, after a marathon war of attrition, the Russian army has now recaptured 99.5% of the lost territory.<\/p>\n With just about 30 square kilometers remaining, Russia will soon focus on negotiating to secure 20% of Ukraine\u2019s land. However, no matter what, victory belongs to Russia, while defeat falls to Ukraine and its European partners who firmly supported continuing the war.<\/p>\n On September 23, 2022 \u2014 seven months after Russian troops invaded Ukraine and controlled large parts of southeastern Ukraine \u2014 Russia organized a four-day “referendum” in the occupied regions of Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson.<\/p>\n All four regions voted with over 90% support to secede from Ukraine and join the Russian Federation, covering an area of 90,000 square kilometers, about 15% of Ukraine\u2019s territory, roughly the size of Portugal and Jordan combined.<\/p>\n Three days later, Putin signed treaties with the leaders of the four regions to formalize their incorporation into Russia.<\/p>\n On October 4, the Federation Council of Russia unanimously approved the treaties, and the legal documents for accepting the four regions into Russia as federal subjects were fully ratified.<\/p>\n On the same day, Putin signed orders completing all legal procedures for the regions to join Russia, and the process immediately came into effect.<\/p>\n The vast majority of sovereign states, including Russia\u2019s friendly countries, refused to openly accept Russia\u2019s illegal annexation of the aforementioned Ukrainian territories.<\/p>\n Subsequently, with NATO informally intervening directly in the war, the Russia-Ukraine conflict evolved into a battle of offense and defense with mutual advances and retreats, a tug-of-war, and a war of attrition.<\/p>\n Ultimately, the balance of the war gradually tilted in favor of Russia, leading to Russia effectively controlling most of the territories of the four aforementioned regions.<\/p>\n On the 22nd, Zelensky made it clear regarding the U.S. peace plan that Ukraine would not recognize Russia\u2019s occupation of Crimea.<\/p>\n After a ceasefire, Ukraine is willing to sit at the negotiation table “in any form,” but it will never recognize the occupied territories as belonging to Russia.<\/p>\n According to reports, due to Ukraine\u2019s firm stance, U.S. Secretary of State Rubio boycotted the originally scheduled U.S.-U.K.-etc. ministerial meeting on Ukraine to be held in London on the 23rd, forcing the meeting to be postponed and downgraded to a lower-level meeting.<\/p>\n The media reported that Russia is willing to relinquish part of the Ukrainian territory it controls in exchange for U.S. recognition of its control over Crimea.<\/p>\n Analysts believe that the Trump administration is eager to extricate itself from the quagmire of the Russia-Ukraine war and rapidly restore U.S.-Russia relations.<\/p>\n Therefore, it exerted strong pressure and even open coercion on the Ukrainian government, even accusing Zelensky of having lost the legitimacy of the presidency, demanding that Ukraine quickly hold new presidential elections to force Zelensky to accept this humiliating peace agreement or to replace him through elections so that the newly elected president could sign the document.<\/p>\n Although Ukraine and other European countries generally oppose the Trump administration\u2019s imposed peace plan and are trying to persuade it to change its position, the Trump administration’s bullying style, arrogance, and the adverse prospect of the U.S. abandoning the Russia-Ukraine conflict have placed Ukraine and its European partners in a highly passive situation.<\/p>\n While the Trump administration\u2019s peace plan will undoubtedly experience twists and turns from proposal to implementation, the three-year-long Russia-Ukraine war, regardless of the exact outcome, will result \u2014 due to the U.S., this “weak teammate,” betraying and undercutting its allies \u2014 in Russia ultimately becoming the big winner.<\/p>\n The only suspense is how much Russia wins and how soon.<\/p>\n The United States, as the instigator of the Ukraine crisis, from long manipulating and deceiving Russia, which wholeheartedly sought to embrace the West, to encouraging NATO’s continuous eastward expansion and intensifying Russia-Europe tensions, to finally at the last moment making it clear it would not militarily intervene against Russia\u2019s deployment of forces, enticed or incited Russia to decisively launch a “special military operation,” dragging both sides into a “European version of the Afghan war” and eroding mutual trust.<\/p>\n Eventually, it abandoned Ukraine and its European partners.<\/p>\n The U.S., as the leader of the West and NATO, has shattered its political integrity, allowing the East, West, and even the entire world to witness the selfishness, ruthlessness, and injustice of American politicians.<\/p>\n This latest reality also reconfirms the new iron rule: the United States is unreliable, untrustworthy, and undependable.<\/p>\n Prof. Ma is the Dean of the Institute of Mediterranean Studies (ISMR) at Zhejiang International Studies University in Hangzhou. He specializes in international politics, particularly Islam and Middle Eastern affairs. He previously worked as a senior Xinhua correspondent in Kuwait, Palestine, and Iraq.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On April 23, while visiting India, U.S. Vice President Vance declared to the media that Washington had made a “very clear proposal” to Russia and Ukraine to reach a peace agreement, and threatened that “the time has come for either both sides to agree or for the U.S. to withdraw from mediation.” This so-called “peace […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":9250,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[9563,319,891,1237,1235,683,800,9562,822,826],"class_list":["post-9249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","tag-betray","tag-donald-trump","tag-europe","tag-negotiations","tag-peace","tag-russia","tag-russia-ukraine-war","tag-the-us","tag-ukraine","tag-war","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"yoast_head":"\n\n
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