Revelations in the American press regarding the existence of a plan secretly discussed by the US and Russia to end the war in Ukraine, a plan approved by President Donald Trump, are spectacular and have sent shockwaves through Washington, Kiev and European capitals allied with America and which have increased their support for Ukraine in the last year.
First of all, it should be noted that the details in and about this plan are still relatively scant – both quantitatively and qualitatively – and only a handful of media and official sources have seen the content.
However, the principle ideas that have prevailed in the public space are somewhat malignant in nature: Ukraine has not been consulted, nor the European partners of the US, Kiev is forced to make sacrifices that are not only dishonest, but downright dangerous for its future, and Moscow obtains so much that some voices in Kiev suspect that everything was drafted by Putin’s people and only approved by the Trump administration.
Then, it would also be worth noting the ‘coincidental” timing of the release which only amplifies suspicions: the plan is about to be shoved down the throats of Ukrainians precisely at the worst time of the year for them – at the beginning of winter.
In Ukraine, starting with the invasion in 2022, winter itself has become a terrorist, given the fact that Russia is madly bombing the Ukrainian energy system to throw the population into darkness and cold and hoping to weaken its morale.
In recent weeks, Russian attacks on civilian targets have multiplied staggeringly with high degree of savagery – savagery that can be easily measured by the type of targets chosen and the number of civilian casualties.
Finally, the “coincidence” means that the plan approved by Trump is shoved down the throats of Ukrainians in a period also marked by the outbreak of the biggest corruption scandal, in Kiev, a scandal that legitimately heated up the spirits at the local level and which, inevitably, put the Zelensky administration under huge pressure.
Therefore, in addition to the fact that Putin’s people and Trump’s people have been secretly discussing and over the heads of Ukraine and EU countries, even the timing of his “sale” seem designed to out additional pressure on Ukraine.
Both spectacular and dangerous, this new plan that emerged on the old Trump-Putin lines is not a departure from what we have seen since the current president took office in the White House.
In fact, in essence, the world is witnessing a rerun of the same old movie, in which any “peace” effort by the Trump team has at its core the same toxic binomial: maximum concessions from Ukraine and maximum benefits for Russia.
That suggests at least three things:
- On the Russian-Ukrainian file, Trump seems neither willing nor able to change a conception and a method that have demonstrated on several occasions their inefficiency and lack of realism.
- Trump is incapable of dominating Putin, although here we must add the fact that, until now he has also proved incapable of making the Ukrainians (president, army and people) fold.
- Trump’s contempt for Europe remains at astronomical levels, given that the nature of the concessions he is trying to impose on Kiev (ceding key territories for defense plus the reduction and partial disarmament of the army) and the nature of the benefits he is striving to place on Putin’s plate is simply a time bomb placed even under the security chair of the entire European continent.
No less remarkable about this peace plan (compared by some to a new Molotov-Ribbentrop) is the fact that it comes after a period when, after the failure of the Alaska summit, Trump’s tone towards Putin had experienced several peaks of virility.
Only this time, as on so many other occasions throughout 2025, after getting a little angry at the Russian dictator, the American president ended up bringing him tea again and remaining at his disposal.
It is not surprising that the first reactions of Europeans flowed on Thursday in a sharp and incisive tone. After all, on our continent a significant number of countries are preparing for the eventuality of the outbreak of a large-scale war, beyond Ukraine, unleashed by Russia.
On top of that, it is both ironic, but also likely to faithfully decouple the Trump administration’s decoupling from reality that Washington is trying to shove a plan extremely favorable to Moscow down Kiev’s throat just as Warsaw is investigating a Russian sabotage on Polish territory, and in Paris, the head of the French army asked his compatriots to be prepared to kill their sons so that the country can defend itself from Russia.
Europe is not one hundred percent ready for a world in which the security guaranteed for eight decades by the Americans on the continent has plummeted to zeo, nor will it be ready too soon at such a level.
But no less true is the fact that, in the last year at least, European states have given enough signals that they are even less prepared to accept the fact of surrendering unconditionally and without a fight to Russia’s claims and threats.
In fact, armament, the development of the defense industry and the training of the population are in full swing almost everywhere in Europe. Likewise, extraordinary models of financing and multinational cooperation are designed for all this effort.
The new secret Trump-Putin plan is damaging and disappointing for U.S. allies in Europe, but rather than cutting the momentum, it has a chance to accelerate and deepen Europeans’ awakening and preparedness regarding Russia.
It should be noted, finally, that through his policies, the great “peacemaker” in Washington has so far only increased the risk of conflict in Asia (via China), in Europe (via Russia) and in the Caribbean (via the USA).
Let’s admit it, without a doubt: it is a counter-performance that you rarely find in history the fact that the risk of a continental-wide conflict became greater in the era of the “peacemaker” than it had been until he was installed in the White House.
