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We agree with Prime Minister Mark Carney, European leaders and Japan that, while supporting U.S. President Donald Trump’s efforts to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, his 28-point peace plan needs work.
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Trump’s warning that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has until Thursday — U.S. Thanksgiving — to accept it is unrealistic given that in its current form it gives Russian President Vladimir Putin most of what he wants.
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That is, the annexation of new territory in the Donbas region which Ukraine currently holds in addition to Crimea, which Putin invaded and annexed in 2014; reducing the size of Ukraine’s military by almost a third to 600,000 and guaranteeing Ukraine will never join NATO.
The Moscow Times reported Friday that Putin said Trump’s plan “could lay the foundation for a final peace settlement,” although Alexei Zhuravlev, First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Defense Committee, said the war will only end if Ukraine surrenders as “any other outcome will merely postpone the confrontation.”
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Trump was also sending out mixed messages, telling CNN that his peace plan was “not my final offer” but if Zelensky rejects it, “then he can continue to fight his little heart out.”
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All of which puts Zelensky between a rock and a hard place, opposed to key parts of Trump’s proposed peace plan to end the conflict while not wanting to offend the U.S. president in a war where Ukraine’s leader relies on his support.
That said, and given Carney’s position that Trump’s plan needs more work, what is his plan to end the conflict in a war now in its fourth year since Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022?
According to Carney’s PMO, Canada has committed $22 billion in assistance for Ukraine since the start of the conflict, including more than $12.4 billion in direct financial support — the largest per capita financial contribution among G7 countries.
While Ukraine has fought valiantly, the idea that it can defeat Russia on the battlefield is unrealistic, given that Putin is clearly prepared to grind out the war for as long as it takes to achieve victory.
Given that, what is Canada’s view of what an acceptable end to the conflict will look like, if not what Trump has proposed?
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