The US and Britain are busy with their plans to stop the war in Ukraine. President Trump is pressuring Kyiv to freeze the war, keeping the Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine under Moscow’s control. In Trump’s vision, Ukraine will neither join Nato nor receive US security guarantees and will have to rely on economic cooperation with Washington as its main source of protection. At the London summit of European leaders, the British PM Sir Keir Starmer unveiled a different peace proposal, which also implies continued Russian control over occupied areas. In exchange, Ukraine is promised military support and security guarantees.
Both plans are doomed to fail. The issues policymakers in Washington, London and Brussels are focusing on – Nato, territory, and peacekeeping troops – are not the main causes of the war and so cannot be the keys to peace. Russia’s efforts to control Ukraine are driven neither by territorial ambition nor by security concerns but by ideology.
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