War for a peace plan. “FT”: Changes will be difficult, many points are unacceptable

Modifying the peace plan proposed by the United States to make it more acceptable to Ukraine will be a powerful diplomatic undertaking, said the British daily Financial Times on Monday, which highlighted the five most difficult points for Kiev.

Last week, Donald Trump's administration presented a 28-point peace plan to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and is pressuring him to accept it by Thursday at the latest. The plan was perceived as playing into Russia's hands, although American officials warn that it may still be subject to changes.

In the opinion of “FT”, five points in particular are particularly worrying for Ukraine, and it will be extremely difficult to reach a compromise in this case. The newspaper's first priority was Ukraine's withdrawal from the part of the Donetsk Oblast it currently controls.

“Giving up the territory for the defense of which Ukrainians have shed so much blood will likely be very controversial and destabilizing for Ukraine – which is also in the Kremlin's interests. Tens of thousands of Ukrainians remaining in the territory to be transferred would be displaced. This would mean Ukraine giving up the 'fortress belt' consisting of the cities of Slavyansk, Kramatorsk, Druzhkivka and Konstantynówka, which has been a stronghold against Russian forces since 2014,” wrote the British daily.

He added that although the areas from which Ukraine would withdraw would be a “neutral demilitarized buffer zone”, if Russia entered this area in the future, it would open its way to the central part of Ukraine.

The second difficult point mentioned by “FT” was the lack of specific arrangements regarding what the guarantees for Ukraine would consist of in exchange for its withdrawal from joining NATO and not stationing soldiers of the Alliance countries on its territory. “FT” recalled that the Budapest Memorandum of 1994, in which Ukraine received security guarantees in exchange for giving up nuclear weapons, did not stop Russian aggression. He assessed that if there are no details on what the guarantees will consist of this time and if it is not clearly defined what the reaction will be to Russia's violation of the agreement, this point is unacceptable for Kiev.

The FT then pointed out that the US plan would derail the EU's proposed program to use Russia's frozen assets to obtain a €140 billion loan for “reparations” to Ukraine, which the EU had hoped to approve next month. Even after a peace deal, Ukraine will need massive budget support from its European allies and long-term financing to train and equip its armed forces, and most EU countries agree that a reparations loan is the best and cheapest way to provide this assistance.

“The peace plan provides for a general amnesty for both sides of the conflict and an agreement to withdraw all legal claims. Clearing Russia of the charges would be an extremely bitter pill to swallow for many Ukrainians who have experienced death, destruction, rape and kidnapping of children by Russian armed forces,” noted “FT”, recalling the words of Nobel Peace Prize winner Oleksandra Matviychuk, who believes that a general amnesty and “the absence of any negative consequences aggression” would be a “major disappointment” for Ukrainians resulting from the American plan.

The last point that is difficult for Ukraine to accept is the proposed limiting the number of its armed forces to 600,000. soldiers, which – as “FT” emphasized – is in itself an unacceptable violation of the country's sovereignty. But it also raises concerns that such a restriction will make it easier for Moscow to commit another aggression in the future, especially since the plan does not provide for any limits on Russian troops. (PAP)

bjn/kbm/