Volodymyr Zelensky is offering Donald Trump an olive branch after the American president paused all US military aid to Ukraine last night. Zelensky has expressed his regrets about the confrontation in the Oval Office and said his team is ready to come to the negotiating table ‘as soon as possible’. Ukraine wants to sign the minerals agreement with the US at ‘any time and in any convenient format’. Zelensky also praised Trump’s ‘strong leadership’ and offered the first steps towards a cease-fire. Will this be enough?
White House officials earlier stated that aid would be on hold until Zelensky apologises for the Oval Office spat and demonstrates his readiness for peace. The Ukrainian president, who once admitted Ukraine wouldn’t survive without US support, is now forced to back down to satisfy Trump’s ego. Calling the fight with Trump ‘regrettable’ is not quite the apology Trump would want, but it makes it harder to pin the blame on Zelensky for refusing to co-operate. Kyiv hopes Zelensky’s peace offer will soften Trump’s upcoming speech in Congress and change his mind about the aid.
Zelensky proposes a truce in the air and at sea – a plan backed by Emmanuel Macron and Keir Starmer during the London summit – which would ban missiles, long-range drones and attacks on energy and other civilian infrastructure. If Russia complies, Zelensky believes they could quickly move on to a ‘strong final deal’. This part will be difficult to achieve, as Moscow says Zelensky is an ‘illegitimate’ president and doesn’t have the executive power to sign anything binding. The US-Russia peace plan is different and calls for a ceasefire (without security guarantees for Ukraine), elections in Ukraine and the signing of a final agreement once a more compliant leader takes Zelensky’s place.
On top of that, Trump’s team has been pressuring Zelensky to make territorial concessions to Russia. Zelensky said he refused, explaining he could accept that 20 per cent of Ukraine remains under Russian control de facto – but not de jure. It is possible Trump will continue withholding US aid to Ukraine until the country accepts most, if not all, of his terms. American troops have already started dismantling a logistics and storage base at the main transit hub for foreign aid to Ukraine: Rzeszów–Jasionka airport in Poland. The reinforced concrete staging area, hastily constructed in 2022, is being taken apart just as rapidly, according to Tomasz Buczek, a Polish member of the European Parliament.
Ukraine has previously survived a halt in US aid when Trump-backed Republicans blocked the $61 billion package for six months. That delay allowed Russian forces to gain artillery superiority – firing ten shells for every one fired by Ukraine – and contributed to the fall of Avdiivka in the Donetsk region. This time, Ukraine is set to run out of US-supplied weapons before summer, though the immediate impact may be less severe. Most battlefield casualties are now caused by drones, not traditional artillery, and most of these drones are produced domestically.
Still, Ukrainian cities and civilians will feel the effects of the freeze in aid much sooner. Without US air defence missiles for its Patriot systems, Ukraine’s energy infrastructure will once again be exposed. Recent Russian missile strikes have severely damaged electrical substations critical for nuclear safety, and each new attack will leave more Ukrainians without electricity. Unless the country receives alternative air defences from Europe, civilian casualties will continue to rise.
The Kremlin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, hailed Trump’s move to suspend aid to Ukraine as the ‘best contribution to peace’. For months, Vladimir Putin and his cronies have insisted that the fastest way to end the war is to cut off Ukraine’s weapons supply, letting Russia crush the country in weeks. Now, thanks to Trump, Ukraine is at its most vulnerable position since February 2022. Donald Trump hasn’t even met Putin yet, but he’s already giving the Russian president everything he wants.
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