President Donald Trump's push to broker a peace deal between Kyiv and Moscow reflects less an instinct for mediation than an impulse to appease. He has acted as Russian President Vladimir Putin's henchman — leaving Russia emboldened, Ukraine isolated, allies abandoned and international security at risk.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy discovered this harsh reality when he, earlier this year, sought Trump's support to deliver a strong response to Russia's unprovoked invasion. Against all expectations, he received no assurances — just public humiliation.
Trump's blunt tone and abrasive treatment of a partner under siege revealed that under his presidency, Washington's foreign policy will be driven by self-interest, not commitment and values.
By making overtures to Moscow, Trump is tearing apart a coalition of 50 nations, his predecessor painstakingly stitched together to shore up Kyiv's defence. He appears willing to surrender Ukraine's sovereignty and undermine Europe's security.
Trump's placation of a revisionist leader has transcended all limits. He has placed the onus of ending the war on Ukraine, painting Russia as a victim. Not long ago an impassioned defender of democratic freedoms, human rights and transatlantic cohesion, America — under new president — has defected to an authoritarian adversary, branding Zelenskyy as a "dictator" and dismissing conflict as a European war.
Chasing personal glory and rapid-fire peace deals, he has talked of territorial swaps, nixed Ukraine's Nato membership, refused security guarantees to Ukraine and pressured Zelenskyy to end the war on Putin's terms — ceding Crimea to Moscow. Trump's "deal-making" normalises aggression and encourages Russia to demand recognition of "new territorial realities."
This isn't diplomacy — it's capitulation. This doesn't just reward aggression — it hails tyranny. Worse, this approach shakes the foundation of transatlantic security and casts serious doubts on US commitment to allies.
Trump's abandonment of Ukraine will reinforce the Global South's suspicions on US reliability as a security partner and guardian of the rules-based international order, hastening their embrace of a China-led global governance model — not out of ideological convergence but out of disillusionment with America's negotiable commitments with partners.
To prevent this drift, Washington must reestablish its credibility. Clinging to an arrogant obsession of the world's lone-superpower won't change the Global South's perception.
For America to change this view, it must treat existing allies as equals, build new partnerships — not alliances — with individual countries and demonstrate that it values its allies regardless of economic and military weight.
Even Europe is growing wary. The bloc's 2025 Strategic Foresight Report underscores that security has become a "key vector" for all European policies, stressing "we are witnessing the erosion of the rules-based international order and fracturing of the global landscape." Britain, Belgium, France and Portugal as well as several US allies have announced recognising Palestine — apparently in a backlash against Trump's protectionism and ambivalence toward European security.
Moscow, meanwhile, is exploiting Trump's whimsical approach. Far from tempering its stance, it has hardened its conditions to end the war, demanding most of the territory it has seized and some of which it's yet to, accepting Zelenskyy only as a "de facto" head of a "regime" rather than as a leader of a sovereign state.
Putin continues to pin the blame of his invasion of Ukraine on the "(2014) coup" and Kyiv's accession to Nato — a narrative echoed by some Western scholars but belied by Russia's annexation of Ukrainian land.
More than a decade later, the West's assessment has prevailed with Russia seizing almost 20 per cent of Ukraine. And despite Trump's assurance to deny Nato membership to Ukraine, Putin is seeking more — let alone returning the occupied territory. His dizzying pace and bountiful concessions to Moscow have shocked allies and invited escalation.
If this is the peace deal he boasted on his campaign trail to clinch in 24 hours, Ukraine and Europe are rightly alarmed. Surrender, dressed up as statesmanship, won't bring peace — it will weaken Ukraine, fracture transatlantic bonds and strengthen authoritarian rivals.
Trump must reverse course. To reestablish US credibility and sustain its global leadership, he must deter aggression; reaffirm Washington's commitment to Ukraine's sovereignty and allies, including those in the Global South; and strengthen — not undercut — the rules-based international order.
Inaction is not an option. Failure to act risks dragging the world back to the prewar era — only this time, not with bayonets, but with far deadlier weapons and nuclear stockpiles — a catastrophe for both America and the rest.
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