Five Takeaways From Trump’s Fateful Decision To Freeze All Military Aid To Ukraine
Transatlantic ties, Russian-US relations, and the nature of American hegemony are all transforming before everyone’s eyes as Trump makes bold moves to force Zelensky to the peace table with Putin.
An unnamed senior Defense Department told the media on Monday evening that Trump decided to freeze all military aid to Ukraine until its leaders demonstrate a good-faith commitment to peace. This comes just several days after Zelensky picked his fight with Trump and Vance at the White House. The Wall Street Journal earlier predicted that Ukraine could only continue fighting at its current level till this summer in such a scenario. Here are five takeaways from this monumental development:
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1. Trump Is Serious About Brokering Peace
Zelensky made it clear during his disastrous visit to the White House last Friday that he’s dead-set on fighting till the last Ukrainian unless his country either gets NATO membership or Western troops. Neither of those demands is acceptable to Trump since they’d risk World War III, but so too could that risk continue rising if the conflict doesn’t soon end. Trump therefore realized that the only way to force Zelensky to the peace table with Putin is to freeze all military aid until he moderates his extreme stance.
2. He & Putin Likely Have A Secret Agreement
Trump said last week that “A ceasefire could take place immediately”, which was arguably an inadvertent admission of a secret agreement with Putin. No lasting peace can be reached until after the next Ukrainian presidential elections, but they can’t be held during martial law, ergo the need for a ceasefire. Although Putin earlier conditioned this on Ukraine withdrawing from the disputed regions, he might support a ceasefire to justify the US’ curtailed aid to Ukraine and legitimize Russian-US economic deals.
3. But It’s Not Yet A Comprehensive One
If the aforesaid speculation is accurate, then it doesn’t mean that those two have a comprehensive agreement. Serious issues such as the final Russian-Ukrainian border and the question of peacekeepers have yet to be agreed to and might not be resolved till after the next Ukrainian presidential and parliamentary elections. It’s therefore premature to predict that the Line of Contact will become the final border and that Western peacekeepers will be deployed there, especially since Russia opposes both.
4. Poland Might Have A Pivotal Role To Play
About 90% of Western military aid to Ukraine transits through Poland so Trump might ask it to stop the Europeans from using its territory to arm Ukraine during a ceasefire in exchange for post-conflict perks. He doesn’t want the Brits, French, or Germans emboldening Ukraine to violate the ceasefire or provoke Russia into doing so and can incentivize Poland to prevent this by promising to keep American troops there, possibly redeploy some from Germany to Poland, and turn Poland into its top partner in Europe.
5. The “New Détente” Is Trump’s Top Priority
Every major move that’s taken place since Trump’s call with Putin in mid-February has been predicated on advancing his grand strategic goal of a Russian-US “New Détente”, the gist of which is to revolutionize International Relations through a game-changing comprehensive partnership between them. Readers can learn more about its details from the three preceding hyperlinked analyses, but it’s the pursuit of this goal that ultimately drove Trump to make the fateful decision to freeze all military aid to Ukraine.
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Transatlantic ties, Russian-US relations, and the nature of American hegemony are all transforming before everyone’s eyes as Trump makes bold moves to force Zelensky to the peace table with Putin. His latest one was literally one of the worst-case scenarios from Ukraine’s and Europe’s perspective but there’s little that they can do in response other than capitulate to his demands. The US holds all the cards like Trump reminded Zelensky last Friday and those who think otherwise risk paying the price.
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Do you think perhaps that there is a ‘grand bargain’ in the offing, that encompasses not only the resolution of the Ukrainian conflict, but also a framework for a settlement of the United States’ disagreements with Iran over its putative nuclear programme, and possibly even some sort of détente with North Korea?
It seems to me that such a settlement would very much appeal to President Trump’s vision and view of himself, in so far as we can understand it, and, of course, a potential Nobel Prize would be an added incentive.
What the world needs to know are the limits to both this new detente and the comprehensive partnership between the US and Russia. China will most definitely want answers to this question, especially if either (informal accord) contains even a hint of of military pact between America and Russia, by using words, say, to the effect that ‘we’ve got each others’ back.’
While Beijing has openly expressed its support for such a new detente — although probably wouldn’t use that word — the fact that Putin and XI have several times deemed it necessary to publicly express their undying love for each other, means that one can’t readily discount the possibility that the two gentlemen doth protest too much. Nor can one dismiss the possibility that Trump has not miraculously abandoned the idea of separating Russia from China.
Certainly the US deep state, together with its partners in crime across the Western world, has by no means given up on the task of effecting such a separation. Indeed, one gets a sense that the ‘global deep state’ is about to fight back in earnest against Trump and Putin, perhaps even by siding with Xi if he/they thought that became necessary.