Donald Trump may call for a 800-mile demilitarised zone between Russia and Ukraine as part of a plan to end the war the early.
The proposal, which has been outlined by three Trump staffers, would involve the zone being policed by British and European troops, The Telegraph has reported.
It would mean the Russia would keep its territorial gains made in Ukraine with the current border frozen in place. Kyiv would also have to assure that it would not join NATO for 20 years.
Under the plans, which is one of several being considered, the US would arm Ukraine in return to prevent Russia from restarting the war.
However, responsibility for manning and financing the buffer zone would fall solely on Ukraine’s European allies.
It comes as Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky warned that any attempt to end the war by appeasing Russia would be ‘suicide’ for Europe.
Although Trump hasn’t outlined how he would get both sides to the negotiating table, his advisors have reportedly voiced different plans how to solve the conflict.
Top Russian security official Sergei Shoigu said on Thursday that the situation in the combat zone in Ukraine is not in Kyiv’s favour and that the West should accept this and negotiate an end to the conflict, the Interfax news agency reported.
‘Now, when the situation in the theater of military operations is not in the favour of the Kyiv regime, the West is faced with a choice – to continue financing it and destroying the Ukrainian population or to recognise the current realities and start negotiating,’ Shoigu was cited as telling a meeting of secretaries of Commonwealth of Independent States countries’ security councils in Moscow.
Trump has famously said that the Russia-Ukraine war would never have started had he been president and claimed he could bring the conflict to an abrupt halt – without ever revealing his plans for doing so.
A recent Wall Street Journal report citing three sources ‘close to the president-elect’ claimed that Trump’s transition office is considering one proposal that would prevent Kyiv from joining NATO for at least 20 years in exchange for lucrative arms deals.
In the meantime, the conflict would be halted by the implementation of a large demilitarised zone (DMZ) that would effectively freeze the fighting in place and force Kyiv to relinquish up to 20% of its territory as part of an ‘800-mile DMZ’.
But the sources offered no insight into how such a buffer zone between Russia’s border and unoccupied Ukraine would be monitored or managed, other than to say it would not be staffed by American peacekeepers.
‘We can do training and other support but the barrel of the gun is going to be European… and we are not paying for it,’ one source is quoted as saying.
Britain, France and Germany have already vowed to support Ukraine ‘for as long as it takes’ and Zelensky is adamantly against relinquishing territory to Vladimir Putin.
Yesterday, the Ukrainian leader said that making any concessions to Putin would be ‘unacceptable for Ukraine’ and ‘suicidal for Europe’.
With that in mind, it is difficult to see how such a plan could be pushed through other than by strong-arming Kyiv with threats of withholding sorely needed US military aid.
This would dramatically undermine Washington’s relations with all of Europe and call into question the legitimacy of NATO.
Some analysts and politicians have cautioned it could even embolden the likes of China to capitalise on the West’s perceived disunity and seek to expand its influence in the Pacific.
Fears that the Republican might seek to unilaterally withdraw from NATO altogether are overblown, with US Congress having passed legislation that requires a two-thirds majority vote in the Senate to approve such a move.
However, many analysts have warned that Trump is indeed likely to reduce US’ military aid to Ukraine and force Kyiv’s European partners to shoulder a huge burden to maintain an adequate supply of arms – a move that would certainly pile pressure on Zelensky to consider a negotiated settlement and ceding territory.
