From Reuters:
"Trump's plan for Ukraine comes into focus: NATO off the table and concessions on territory
WASHINGTON,
Dec 4 (Reuters) - Advisers to Donald Trump publicly and privately are
floating proposals to end the Ukraine war that would cede large parts of
the country to Russia for the foreseeable future, according to a
Reuters analysis of their statements and interviews with several people
close to the U.S. president-elect.
The proposals by three key advisers, including Trump's incoming Russia-Ukraine envoy, retired Army Lieutenant-General Keith Kellogg, share some elements, including taking NATO membership for Ukraine off the table.
Trump's
advisers would try forcing Moscow and Kyiv into negotiations with
carrots and sticks, including halting military aid to Kyiv unless it
agrees to talk but boosting assistance if Russian President Vladimir
Putin refuses.
Trump
repeatedly pledged during his election campaign to end the nearly
three-year-old conflict within 24 hours of his Jan. 20 inauguration, if
not before then, but has yet to say how.
Analysts
and former national security officials voice grave doubts Trump can
fulfill such a pledge because of the conflict's complexity.
Taken together, however, his advisers' statements suggest the potential contours of a Trump peace plan.
Ukrainian
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, facing manpower shortages and growing
territorial losses, has indicated that he may be open to negotiations.
While still intent on NATO membership, he said this week that Ukraine must find diplomatic solutions to regaining some of its occupied territories.
But Trump may find Putin unwilling to engage, analysts and former U.S. officials said, as he has the Ukrainians on the back foot and may have more to gain by pursuing further land grabs.
"Putin
is in no hurry," said Eugene Rumer, a former top U.S. intelligence
analyst on Russia now with the Carnegie Endowment for International
Peace think tank.
The Russian leader, he said, shows no readiness to drop his conditions
for a truce and talks, including Ukraine abandoning its NATO quest and
surrendering the four provinces Putin claims as part of Russia but does
not fully control, a demand rejected by Kyiv.
Putin,
Rumer said, likely will bide his time, take more ground and wait to see
what, if any, concessions Trump may offer to lure him to the
negotiating table.
Reuters reported
in May that Putin was ready to halt the war with a negotiated ceasefire
that recognized current front lines but was ready to fight on if Kyiv
and the West did not respond.
Russia
already controls all of Crimea, having unilaterally seized it from
Ukraine in 2014 and has since taken about 80% of the Donbas - which is
comprised of Donetsk and Luhansk - as well as more than 70% of
Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, and small parts of the Mykolaiv and Kharkiv
regions...
The Kellogg plan, which hinges on increasing aid for Ukraine if Putin
does not come to the table, could face blowback in Congress, where some
of Trump's closest allies oppose additional military aid for the Eastern
European nation."
***
This is the dire result of Americans electing pro-Russian Presidents for decades.
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