Maidan square, Kyiv, Ukraine, May 10, 2025. Photo: Nicolas Tenzer
Much has been written and said since Trump’s “Russian plan” was leaked. An uncompromising analysis has been made by excellent authors, notably Timothy Snyder, Lawrence Freedman, and Michael Weiss, of its 28 points, all of which are obviously unacceptable to Ukraine, but also to Europe. The links between Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and his complacency—which remains an understatement—towards Russia and the profits that some close to the Trump regime hope to make have been widely demonstrated. One could undoubtedly call it a corruption pact. We have seen attempts by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to make it vaguely more presentable, but his submission to the US president has not been contradicted, as he even went so far as to request the signing of the so-called peace plan before any security guarantees had been announced. As for the Republican US lawmakers who have shown, sometimes forcefully, their opposition to the Dmitriev plan dictated to Witkoff, we now wait to see if this will translate into a vote in Congress.
On the other side, President Zelenskyy is forced to accept diplomatic contortions in order to avoid a brutal confrontation with Trump. He knows full well that the so-called negotiations are a shadow theater from which nothing serious can emerge. He is also buying time to avoid a suspension of aid from US military intelligence. He has long since learned to put up with the humiliating actions of Trump and sometimes others. For the time being, he is playing along because he believes that not doing so would be even worse for Ukraine. One can only imagine what his thoughts are, as they have been for a long time.
As for the Europeans, they have proposed a 19-point plan, the exact wording of which is unknown and which, incidentally, one wonders whether it has been taken into account at all by the US administration. It is certainly more presentable, despite what appears to be a great deal of vagueness. The Europeans were right to clearly oppose the “Russian plan,” while sparing Trump, but they were probably wrong to start from